


Black Roses

by CheCheCheer



Series: Haikyuu Fairy Tale AU's [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Rapunzel Fusion, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Manipulation, Eventual Smut, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, HEAR ME OUT: Kuroshou, Hurt/Comfort, I love bokuaka so much, I mean Mother Gothel you know how it is, M/M, No don't click away I swear they are great, Smut, Started as a tangled Au but my beta enabled me WAY to much, courtesy of my beta, don't worry tho I got you, fairy tale AU, its gunna be real sad mate, its the whole nine bits, so now its like its own thing we split off from the movie entirely, tagging is fun I can say what ever I want, thats unrelated but I wanted to say it, they are writing you smut everybody say thank you, told you, we got subplots and continuations and everything, were gunna have fun, you say you like enemies to lovers but you SLEEP on them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:48:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 37,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28438656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CheCheCheer/pseuds/CheCheCheer
Summary: Tadashi. That would make a good name. Daishou remembered reading that it meant luck. The irony amused him. The baby was lucky, sure. He had the power to heal those on the brink of death. But it would come at the cost of his freedom.Tadashi would certainly be one of wayward luck.Or a Tsukkiyama Tangled AU that has managed to deviate drastically from its source material (so you can be surprised every step of the way!)Updates every Sunday
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Azumane Asahi/Nishinoya Yuu, Daishou Suguru/Kuroo Tetsurou, Hinata Shouyou & Kageyama Tobio, Hinata Shouyou/Kozume Kenma, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi, Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Series: Haikyuu Fairy Tale AU's [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1924315
Comments: 65
Kudos: 104





	1. The Garden of Eden

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Welcome, welcome, strap yourselves in because I'm ready to roll! This fic has been in the workings for months now and I'm exited to be posting it at long last. We're back on my haikyuu fairy tale AU's agenda. 
> 
> A note from my lovely beta [KenmaIsMood](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KenmaisMood): _"I have created a monster I’m both sorry and not, have fun reading~”_

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daishou Suguru was a selfish man, and he would never be satisfied with what he had.

It was an unassuming day when the heavens opened up. A dark day but an ordinary one, long, long ago. And on that day the heavens wept a single drop of golden sunlight. That drop of sun escaped the barriers of the divine and cascaded down to earth. 

Where the drop fell bloomed a flower, golden and glowing. It cast its light on the island it grew on, and it flourished in isolation for years, undisturbed by human eyes. 

But the nature of humans is to grow and expand. It was only a matter of time before someone happened upon the fated flower.

This someone happened to be Daishou Suguru. He was one of the first people to leave for the new lands the drop of sun landed on and the first to settle directly on the island itself. Daishou Suguru was an intuitive man. It didn’t take him long to realize this strange glowing flower was more than it seemed.

It took him only a day to discover the secrets of this pocket of heaven. Picking the petals resulted in them weathering and greying, dissolving to ash in a matter of moments. But if you sang to the flower its petals would fall, retaining their glow even as they lay on the floor, separated from its source. It took mere seconds for the petals to grow back, glowing and healthy. 

But the most important development came with the discovery that if you consumed these petals they would heal virtually any illness. Any injury, any sickness, and as the years carried on Daishou discovered that it also kept one young and strong for all their days. 

He had struck gold. And through a stroke of luck and intervention of his own, the island where the flower grew remained empty and desolate. The same could not be said for the surrounding areas. A kingdom grew and flourished nearby, and with Daishou’s newfound immortality he was able to watch it grow. In no time it was a thriving independent kingdom. 

Daishou Suguru was a selfish man, and he would never be satisfied with what he had. 

So he sought to use the flower to obtain one of the few things it couldn’t give him directly- money. Night after night, day after day, he would collect the flower petals and grind them into salves, selling them in the kingdom’s market as remedies for any which thing. 

Word had a way of traveling, and soon enough Daishou was renowned all over the kingdom for his incredible medicines. He was immortal, he was forever healthy, and he was rich. He had it all.

But all good things must come to an end. 

However hard he tried to disguise the magic petals that _really_ gave his medicines their healing properties, there was always someone who could sniff it out. A doctor, a herbalist, a florist, it didn’t matter who it was that realized what the primary ingredient was. 

The only thing that mattered was that instead of rumors of miracle-working medicine, there were rumors of a miracle-working _flower_ able to heal any sickness. 

Rumors were a dangerous thing. 

For soon enough the rumors reached the ears of the King. 

It was not a happy time for the royal family. The Queen had finally managed to get pregnant after years of trying, but her childbirth troubles were not fated to stop there. She went into labor prematurely and died in childbirth. 

The King was devastated by the loss of his wife, but even that was not the end of his trouble. His son, the baby the Queen died carrying, was sick. He was the King’s only child and his condition was worsening by the second. Without a miracle, he too would die.

It was these conditions that made the King of Karasuno desperate enough to chase after a rumor. He ordered the entire guard force to search the kingdom and the surrounding areas, seeking out the flower that was spoken of in the rumors. 

Daishou went into hiding the moment he heard the word flying throughout the kingdom. There was a chance the flower could go undiscovered, hidden as it was, but if he was caught and forced to talk then it would be over. The only thing he could do was wait it out until the baby died and they stopped looking.

A week later he watched from a crowd of villagers as the triumphant guards paraded his precious flower through the street. They had uprooted it completely and were showing it off like a trophy as they marched toward the palace. 

When they got there they would probably be awarded medals for preserving the kingdom's future. They would be regarded as heroes. It made him sick. 

The flower was his everything. Without it, he was _nothing._ Daishou was willing to fight wars to get back his livelihood.

A day later Daishou snuck onto the palace grounds to try and steal back his flower. He was too late. From his hiding place in the bushes, he was forced to watch the head herbalist boil the entire plant into a soup to give to the young prince. 

They were going to use the whole thing. Not just a petal, not just a bit of power that was easily replaceable. They were going to _destroy_ the flower. 

Later that day he could only watch helplessly as the watery broth was fed to the infant. He recovered immediately, before their very eyes. His eyes brightened, his skin gained a rosy color, his hair looked shiny and fluffy rather than limp. 

The infant prince was healed, but it came at the cost of Daishou’s life. He could feel himself aging by the day. He had only been without his flower for a week, but he felt like he aged 40 years. In another week or two, he would turn to dust, just like the petals he plucked so long ago.

His only hope was that the child may have retained some of the flowers' healing properties, having been fed the entire plant. 

At the stroke of midnight, Daishou broke his way into the royal palace. It was easy enough- the guard force was rejoicing their success, far more focused on partying than doing their jobs. 

The moon was his only witness as Daishou stood over the cradle of the baby who took everything for him. And slowly, softly, he began to sing. The simple easy melody he had been humming to his flower since day one. 

The baby’s hair began to glow, lighting up his dark roots with glowing green. Daishou’s skin instantly smoothed out, looking 40 years younger just like that.

The moon was his only witness when Daishou snipped a lock of hair from the boy's head. The moon was his only witness when the lock went dark, and his hand shriveled up once more. 

Daishou felt like cursing the universe, the heavens, the gods themselves for cursing him like this. For giving him the world then snatching it away, holding it just under his nose. Like it was taunting him, flaunting all that he had lost.

Without the power of the flower, he would be dust in a matter of days. Daishou Suguru was a dead man. And dead men do desperate things. 

The moon was his only witness when Daishou Suguru scooped the infant prince into his arms and took off into the night. The baby’s absence wasn’t noted until morning. 

Daishou would raise the baby as his own, take him to some sheltered place in the woods around the forest. The boy would never know who he really was. 

Tadashi. That would make a good name. Daishou remembered reading that it meant luck. The irony amused him. The baby was lucky, sure. He had the power to heal those on the brink of death. But it would come at the cost of his freedom. 

Tadashi would certainly be one of wayward luck.

When the morning came and the child was declared missing the King’s fury cracked down on the kingdom like a sword. He was a grief-stricken man, having lost his wife and his child within days of each other. 

Blinded by grief and fury of all that was robbed of him, the King ordered the head guards to be banished for their negligence that allowed his son to be kidnapped. 

The head guards were husband and wife themselves, having served the kingdom for years. They had a family of their own, two sons, and for years after the nobility would whisper that it was jealousy that inspired his harsh punishment on the guards. 

The eldest son was already training to be a royal guard. He was a skilled and talented young man, and he was permitted to stay in the kingdom while his parents traveled to the next kingdom, hundreds of miles away. 

The youngest son was but a few months old when his parents were forced into exile. Fearing the baby would die on the harsh journey to the next kingdom, his parents left him at an orphanage in the Kingdom of Karasuno before taking their leave, never to return.

For years the prince remained elusively missing. The matter of his kidnapping was a case without any trails like he had simply been carried away on the wind. It was like he never existed at all, if the grave of the queen didn’t stand as a testament to all that was lost to bring him to the world. 

Year after year on the lost prince’s birthday the entire kingdom lit up the sky with thousands of glowing lanterns, swirling in the sky. One day they hoped it would lead their prince home. 

But no story ended without a start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> M'kay so our posting schedule is going to be every Sunday! I've already got the next 8 or so chapters written, and all of them outlined. Once I finish writing the story (because I plan to do my very best to stay on top of updates) the posting schedule is going to pick up to about three times a week I'm thinking? We'll have to see. 
> 
> I'll be including the best bit of the outline I wrote to plan this for every chapter in the end notes. Here's this chapters (anything in bold was written by my beta)
> 
> Guess what bitch that kids is tsukki this salty bastard has even more reason to be salty now dont give this kid a knife he’ll murder y’all **(fam he just has to give us water, it’ll be so salty we die)**
> 
> Up next week: Yams and his personal trio of hyper active hype machines (who may or may not speak English) talk about zodiac signs or something


	2. Mapping the Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tadashi had never been on the ground.

“You're really _bad_ at this.” Tadashi called up into the rafters. He could clearly see his crow friend halfway hidden behind one of the supporting pillars.

Asahi chirped angrily, poking his head around the beam to glare at him.

“I know, I know. But you’ve been caught.”

Asahi slumped over in what could only be called an over dramatic sigh before gliding down from the ceiling to land on Tadashi’s shoulder.

“You can help me find Daichi and Suga.” Tadashi decided, already heading off to search for the other crows. They were in his room somewhere. And they had played hide and seek so often he knew exactly where. It was a lonely life, being restricted to a single tower and a couple of crows as friends, but at least it made it easy to win Hide and Seek.

“Gotcha!” Tadashi shouted, yanking his closet door open. Daichi and Suga shrieked, flapping their wings rapidly, as the door slammed open in a split second.

“You always hide in here.” Tadashi reprimanded, grinning slightly as the pair settled down from their freight, stray feathers floating down to the floor.

Suga chirped sadly, and Tadashi imagined he was lamenting the lack of hiding spaces in the loft room Tadashi spent his days in.

“The tower is fun!” Tadashi protested. This was far from the first time he had to remind his friends that the tower wasn’t the barren hellscape they seemed to think it was. “It’s not as bad as you think it is.”

Daichi watched him skeptically, holding out a wing to gesture to the ceiling. Tadashi tilted his head up to see what he was pointing to, even if he already knew what he would see. A single painting spanned across the entirety of the ceiling. It had taken Tadashi months and tons of paint to make it. It was a swirling galaxy, and on it were thousands of pinpricks of stars.

Tadashi had spent ages charting stars to get it as accurate as possible, like his own personal galaxy. But his favorite part was at the corner, swirling along the border of the galaxy like a wave. Dozens of rectangular lights, bigger than regular stars wove across the picture in a herd.

The floating lights. The mysterious phenomena that only appeared on Tadashi’s birthday. Many a year was spent looking wistfully out the window, begging his father for answers about what they were and why they only appeared for him.

Every time his father told him they were just stars. That it was a coincidence and nothing more they could only be seen on his birthday.

“I… do want to see those.” Tadashi admitted, eyes still glued to the ceiling. “And if all goes well I will.”

Absently he glanced out the nearby window. The loft room he called his home was the very top part of a spiraling tower, and if he leaned over the windowsill he could see the ground hundreds of feet below.

He had never been on the ground.

His whole life had been spent in this tower, but he knew it was not without reason. His father had been all too happy to tell him why he must stay in the tower at any cost.

When he was a baby it was quickly discovered that by singing to his hair you could heal the sick and old. Humans were selfish creatures. They wanted what they didn’t have. Cutting Tadashi’s hair made it black and made it lose its power. So what did the humans do but try and kidnap him for his hair.

His father was only barely able to escape with him and brought him to live in a tower in the woods. Where he would be safe. Though sometimes Tadashi did resent the strict conditions. While his father went out to gather food or whatever it was he did on his usual outings Tadashi was left in the tower.

When it was discovered that he had quite a green thumb it only made his father more determined to keep him safe and isolated. Tadashi imagined it came with being able to heal the sick and old, but he also was able to grow plants with impossible speed.

From a handful of seeds he could grow vines hundreds of feet long, and it was this very system that allowed him to hoist his father into the tower day after day. If only the seeds weren’t on the ground, out of his reach. He couldn’t do anything without seeds, so for all intents and purposes, he was stuck.

But he was grateful. He was safe and taken care of in this tower of his, and the crows had kept him company for as long back as he could remember. The whole not being able to get a haircut thing wasn't even that big of a deal either. Tadashi’s hair was naturally short and hovered around his shoulders when he didn't have it pinned up.

He was grateful. He was safe, and he didn’t have to constantly worry about the dangers of the outside world. If his father was a flower Tadashi thought he would be Achillea. Safety and security, according to his book on flower language Tadashi had practically memorized. Indeed, Tadashi was always safe and secure because of his father, and he was grateful for that.

But he also longed for what he didn’t have.

Suga pecked his cheek impatiently, and Tadashi was snapped out of his thoughts. All of the crows were chirping at him, talking over one another, and it was only years of companionship with them that allowed him to get a sense of what they were saying.

“I’m going to ask him today.” Tadashi promised, their cries finally quieting down. “My birthday is almost here, and I’m practically all grown up anyway. I’m feeling good about this.”

If everything went well then it would only be a matter of time. Tadashi’s life was finally about to begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me and my peanut brain need to get lost
> 
> Today's expert from the outline is:
> 
> and he wants to see the floating lights and hes like broooooo wouldnt it be cool to see some LIGHTS (he doesnt have electricity give him a break) 
> 
> Fun fact this chapter was supposed to be called Mapping the ~~floating lights~~ Stars but crossed out words don't work if its the title apperantly :/ This is also really short but this chapter marks the end of the short chapters. I would say this is the end of the exposition, so we're ready to jump right in! Only took us two weeks lol
> 
> Up next week: Kuroo shouldn't be trusted with anything more important than the dinner plans, Tsukki is tested with the will of god, and I prove I am having way to much fun writing the up next week section


	3. Quality of Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There was something about the life of a thief that was just _so_ thrilling.

The only memoir Tsukki’s family had left him was two letters, the words smudged and the paper creased from years of wear. One letter from his parents, and one from his older brother. 

Tsukki didn’t remember them. He was only a baby when they left him at the orphanage, and he had only the promises in the letters to cobble together an image of them with. 

His mother and father, banished from the kingdom after a fatal mistake. Their letter held declarations of love, apologizes for leaving Tsukki in the orphanage, promises that it would be a better life than that of an exile. 

Tsukki didn’t read their letter much, but it still stayed tucked away safely in his pocket. His parents might as well been dead. They had no bearing in his future, not anymore. Tsukki couldn’t find it in himself to mourn for letters on a paper. 

It was his brother’s that he found re-reading in the dead of night when hopelessness tried to creep in. 

His brother’s was much the same, lamenting and apologizing over their broken family. That wasn’t the point of interest. It was the end. 

_Mom and Dad aren’t telling me which orphanage they're taking you to. They’re worried the king may find out where you are and kill you in retaliation or something, so they’re going to limit the information as much as possible. After all, I'm only allowed to stay because I’ve been training as a guard for ages now. The same doesn't go for you._

_You're only a baby. You won't be able to read this for years, but please know- I will find you. It may take me years. You’ll probably get moved around a lot- I know how the system works. But I will do my very best. Wait for me._

_Love, Akiteru_

And for a long time, Tsukki had believed it. He had waited for the older brother he never knew to show up and take him away. 

But that was years ago.

The life of an orphan was a cruel one. Ten years. Tsukki had waited ten years, and no one came. He was ten when he finally gave up and left. 

And it was a far better life. Living on the streets wasn’t easy but he was _free_ and he wasn’t alone. He had made friends in that orphanage, other abandoned children who wanted nothing more than to take their lives into their own hands. They were the only family he would need. 

Sometimes Tsukki would see the four of them on wanted posters throughout the kingdom. He had one with his own face on the front stowed in his bag, just for shits and giggles. They always drew him smiling, and Tsukki found it hilarious. After all, it was hard to live on the streets without committing a little crime.

And six years later his ragtag rabble were finally attempting to pull off the heist they’d been dreaming about for years. If they could execute their plan, they wouldn’t be simple pickpockets anymore.

“Careful!” Kuroo hissed grabbing Bokuto’s arm just as he started to tip off the castle roof. “Idiot, you're gonna fall!”

“Look at the view Kuroo!” Bokuto shouted, entirely too loudly for the delicate task they were undertaking. “You can see the whole kingdom! Look, there’s the forest.”

“Bokuto. Quiet.” Akaashi glared at him, pointing down to the ground. Tsukki leaned over slightly and watched the guards prowling about, oblivious to the four of them on the roof. He wondered if his brother was among them, but dismissed the thought quickly. He wasn’t here to get sentimental. 

“Sorry love.” Bokuto stepped away from the roof, opting instead to lean on Akaashi. 

“Gross.” Tsukki said blandly, but he wasn’t really surprised. The two had been grossly in love for ages, and this was far from the first time he had to put up with their antics. 

“Are you almost done?” Kuroo asked, kneeling down next to Tsukki. 

Tsukki didn’t respond, opting to glare at the tile he was attempting to dislodge from the roof. The palace was built sturdily, and getting it off was proving quite the task, much less silently. “Give me a minute.” He finally muttered, attempting to use his pocket knife as a lever. 

“We have to hurry.” Akaashi was still looking out across the palace grounds, off towards the woods. “We’ll miss the shift change at this rate. It’s gonna be hard to get to the woods if the kingdom’s on alert.”

Like Tsukki needed reminding. The theft itself wasn’t even the hard part- it was what came after. They had to sneak out of the palace grounds and get to the woods, and from there it was a long journey to the next kingdom over. 

The object of their desires was the lost prince’s fabled necklace. It shone with gems that were so expensive even the usually stoic Akaashi was impressed, and if they could pawn it off they’d make a fortune. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the kind of thing they could just sell in their own kingdom. It needed to be taken somewhere where its origins weren't so widely known, and that meant a trip to another kingdom. 

Tsukki needed a vacation anyway. Even if it wouldn’t be much of a vacation having to deal with the idiots he called his best friends. 

“Aha!” Tsukki gasped as the tile finally separated from the roof. “Got it!”

“Are we ready to commence operation steal the necklace?” Bokuto asked eagerly, grabbing the rope they would use to hoist Kuroo down. 

“It’s been in motion since we snuck in, but yeah.” Akaashi adjusted the other end of the rope, making sure it was wrapped securely around Kuroo’s waist. It would be disastrous if it were to come off and Kuroo plummeted down 50 feet. They wouldn’t be able to steal the necklace. And also Kuroo might die. 

“I’m ready.” Kuroo declared, holding his arms out like he was preparing to dive. “Lower me down.”

“Go carefully.” Bokuto muttered, wrapping the rope around his arms while Kuroo lowered himself through the missing panel. Carefully Kuroo descended from the roof, gliding down silently. 

Peering into the room, Tsukki could see the guards situated around the necklace, facing outwards. Kuroo was right above it, and if all goes well he would be able to grab it, and then they would lift him up no problem. 

“Stop!” Akaashi said, and Bokuto held the rope in place right as Kuroo hovered above the pillow the necklace sat upon. Kuroo was far below them now, looking more like a smudge of color than a person. 

Kuroo grabbed the necklace right as one of the guards in front of him sneezed. 

Even though Kuroo was practically indistinguishable, Tsukki didn’t miss the snarky expression crossing across his face. Like he had an idea. A brilliant one. And therefore a _terrible_ one. 

“Got a cold?” Kuroo’s voice was distant but Tsukki could still make it out. 

“Pull him up!” Akaashi exclaimed, voice tinged with panic. “Quick, quick!”

“That idiot.” Tsukki muttered. 

Bokuto yanked on the ropes so hard Kuroo was pulled back up in various jerky motions rather than the smooth glide that got him down. For a long moment, the guard didn’t notice anything, and Tsukki allowed himself to think maybe he would assume one of his fellow guards asked the question. 

But a second later the guard turned around and shouted when he saw the empty spot where the necklace should be. The guards erupted into chaos, and they looked up right as Akaashi reached out to haul Kuroo back onto the roof. 

_Shit._

“You're an idiot.” Tsukki smacked Kuroo’s shoulder the second he was in reach. “What were you thinking?”

“I had an opportunity and I took it!”

“Your opportunity is going to get us _arrested_. Might I remind you if we get caught it’s the death penalty?” Akaashi hissed, gathering up the rope and starting for the other side of the roof. Below them, the guards were already shouting as word of the thievery spread. 

“I got the necklace, didn’t I?” Kuroo grinned wickedly, holding it up to the sun so the gem’s glinted. “This will make us a fortune!” 

“Give that to me.” Tsukki snatched the necklace, ignoring Kuroo’s protest. “You’ve lost necklace privileges. I’ll hold onto it.”

“We’ve got to get to the woods.” Bokuto hopped off of the roof, onto the tower nearby. “If we run maybe we can get to the bridge!”

The bridge in question was the only thing connecting the kingdom to the woods around it. It was surrounded on all sides by the lake surrounding the kingdom. Unless they wanted to steal a boat, it was the only way they could get to the forest. 

The four of them sprinted across the rooftops. It was tricky, flying across the tiles in a mad dash for safety without falling off, but they managed. When they got to the far end of the castle Akaashi stopped short, and everyone else almost tripped over themselves to avoid running him over. 

“We have to jump.” Akaashi said quietly, eyeing the castle wall a bit off from the rooftop. “If we can get onto the security wall we can drop down into the village and make for the bridge.”

“What happened to sneaking past the guards?” Tsukki demanded. 

“Kuroo ruined that.” Akaashi paused to scowl at Kuroo again. Kuroo only stuck his tongue out. “They’re probably heading after us right now. They’ll be on the roof any second.”

Kuroo hummed in thought, eyeing the distance between the palace and the wall that surrounded it. “It’s quite a jump but if we make a running start we can make it. Probably.” 

“I like those odds!” Bokuto decided, taking a few steps back. 

“If you die I’ll kill you.” Tsukki said simply but stepped back to allow him a runway. Bokuto started to sprint across the rooftop, heading for the edge. Right when it looked like he would run right off he pushed off from the tiles, launching himself to the protective wall. 

They held their breath for a moment, but a second later Bokuto touched down safely on top of the wall. 

“Your turn!” Bokuto shouted across the gap, swinging his arms about in triumph. 

Kuroo simply shrugged, not looking too surprised. “Here goes nothing.” Tsukki watched as he backed up a few steps before dashing across the roof and launching himself to the other side. Bokuto reached out to grab his arms when he got close enough, hauling him the rest of the way over.

Akaashi didn’t make his jump quite as dramatic. He skipped the fanfare all together, and Tsukki didn’t even notice Akaashi had started his run-up before he was leaping across, and landing on the other side with as much grace as one could manage. 

Kuroo beckoned him over with a wave. “It’s not hard! C’mon!” 

“Yea it-” Bokuto paused suddenly, staring behind Tsukki with wide-eyed horror. Tsukki whipped his head around, and froze at the sight. Guards were running right at him. Dozens of them just across the roof. They must have climbed up while they were jumping. 

“Hurry! You can still make it!” Akaashi shouted, and Tsukki didn’t wait long enough to doubt himself. 

He dashed the few steps in between him and the roof and lept off. For a moment it was like he was suspended in the air, fighting against gravity, teetering on the edge of falling and flight. 

But all things ended, and when Tsukki’s jump did he found himself safely on the wall. 

Kuroo didn’t give him long to celebrate. He grabbed Tsukki’s arm and started to tug him along, following after Bokuto and Akaashi as they hopped off of the wall and onto the rooftops of shops. They really were spending a lot of time on roofs today. 

“We can make it to the bridge!” Akaashi shouted, leading the way as they dashed over top of the city. He had always had the best mental map, able to think of and revise plans depending on the situation they found themselves in, which made him a perfect navigator. 

There were various bins stacked around the village, holding goods and merchandise, and they used these like stairs to get to the ground level. Around them the city was coming alive, the townsfolk shouting as they were shoved aside to make way for the fleeing thieves, and then screaming louder when they saw the herd of guards trailing after them. 

The four of them sprinted across the bridge as fast as their legs could carry them. Tsukki’s lungs burned and his legs ached, but the thrill of the chase and the adrenalin in his veins kept him from feeling the fatigue too much. 

There was something about the life of a thief that was just _so_ thrilling. 

Though the spike of panic whenever a plan starts to go awry was definitely a downfall. For example, when a horde of guards around the beginning of the gate that leads to the woods starts to assemble and block your path. 

“Oh no…” Bokuto muttered, but Akaashi didn’t stop at all. He kept charging forward, right towards the guards. 

“What are you doing?” Kuroo shouted between breaths. “Do you not see the guards?”

“I see ‘em! We're plowing through!”

“You think we can make it?” Tsukki asked. 

Akaashi smiled wryly, glaring at the path ahead like it was personally responsible for his problems. “I sure hope so.”

Ahead of them the guards were shouting orders to each other, readying swords as they rapidly got closer. They didn’t move an inch, even though Tsukki and his friends were sprinting right towards them at breakneck speed. 

Just when Tsukki thought they were going to end up smacking into the guards Akaashi pulled something out of his bag and flung it at the ground. It happened so quickly Tsukki couldn’t tell what it was he threw. 

What he did know was that the second the object hit the ground it smoked up like dust, obscuring Tsukki’s vision. He had half a mind to stop and run backwards to escape the smoke, but he trusted Akaashi. This wasn’t the first crazy plan he had cooked up, and every single one had worked before despite Tsukki’s reservations. 

So he kept running forward as fast as his legs could take him. He was running towards the bag of the group, so Bokuto and Kuroo pushed aside the majority of the guards when they hit the group. The smokescreen worked as effective cover, disorienting the guards and making it easier for them to slip through. 

They emerged on the other side of the bridge, Tsukki’s feet hitting grass as the smoke started to dissipate. Akaashi, Bokuto, and Kuroo were ahead of him, all unscathed, and a quick look into his satchel revealed the necklace still safely tucked away. 

“You're brilliant!” Bokuto shouted, voice high with ecstasy and nerves. “What was that?”

“Billowing powder! Picked it up at the market this morning.”

“Amazing!”

“Right, right, flirt later.” Kuroo glanced behind them. “It's not over yet.”

Sure enough, the guards were beginning to give chase now that the powder was blowing away. The four of them may have been crafty, but Tsukki knew they couldn’t outrun a whole legion of guards chasing them. 

They broke through the tree line, not letting up on their sprint for one moment, and continued farther into the woods. Tsukki hadn’t spent much time in the woods- it was easier for them to steal things in the village to get by. But he was willing to bet they knew them better than the kingdom raised guards chasing them. Hopefully, he could use that to their advantage.

“We have to split up.” Tsukki decided. 

“What about safety in numbers?” Bokuto asked. 

“If we split up we can shake them off.” Akaashi decided. “We can regroup somewhere!”

“Where?” Kuroo jumped suddenly, and Tsukki slowed his sprint to glance at him. 

At the tree where Kuroo had just passed by was an arrow, sticking out from the trunk. A second later another joined it at another nearby tree, and Tsukki glanced back to see the guards shooting arrows at them. If they stayed here they would get impaled. 

“There’s no time, just go!” Tsukki shouted. “We’ll find each other!” And with that he split off to the right, crashing through the trees in a zigzag pattern to avoid any arrows. He risked a glance over his shoulder to see the others disappearing into the trees, all in different directions. 

Behind them the guards hesitated for a second, confused on who to pursue. They didn’t know which one of them had the necklace they were after, which meant they would be forced to split into four fractions. Tsukki would have a much easier time shaking off 10 guards than 40. 

All according to plan. Akaashi may have been their ‘official’ strategist, but Tsukki could hold his own.

Of course that didn’t mean it was _easy_. The guard’s brief indecisiveness allowed Tsukki just enough time to sprint farther into the woods to gain some cover from the arrows, and some distance as well. 

Unfortunately once some of the guards started to run after him Tsukki could tell they were gaining on him. Tsukki may have been a good runner, but he was still only 16, and he had also been sprinting all the way from the palace. The guards chasing him were grownups and didn't have to compete with the exhaustion settling into Tsukki’s bones. 

There was no hope of outlasting them. Tsukki needed to shake them off quickly, or he would be apprehended. It made him worry about his friends too. They had been running for just as long as he had, and even if they had more stamina than him they wouldn’t be able to last long. But for now, all he could do was focus on not getting himself caught, and hope they would do the same. 

Tsukki dashed through the woods, leaping over tree trunks and roots, ducking under branches, and weaving through the trees. Behind him he could hear the guards crashing through the forest like a herd of animals. They would be terrible on a stealth operation. 

He found he couldn’t focus much on that though. With every step his exhaustion was becoming more and more pliable, weighing him down like a ball and chain. He couldn’t keep going like this, but the guards didn’t seem to be letting up. 

Tsukki dashed around some more trees. He was in a part of the woods he didn’t recognize, the pathways untrodden. They must have been deep in the woods, and Tsukki was surprised he had managed to keep running long enough to get out there. 

But behind him he could hear the guards. They were far enough away that a glance over his shoulder didn’t reveal them, but Tsukki knew they were close. His legs were lead, he was ready to collapse, and his lungs ached like the oxygen wasn’t coming. He couldn’t keep going. 

Time for plan B. 

Tsukki whipped his head around, frantically looking for a hiding spot. If he couldn’t outrun them, he would hide. The vegetation was thick around here, but it was all in the form of trees There wasn’t much in the way of bushes he could hide in, and he doubted he had the strength or time to climb a tree. 

There was a large cliff off to the side, and climbing up it was a wall of vines. Maybe if they were thick enough Tsukki could use them like a blanket. It wasn’t ideal, but it was better than nothing. Whatever he was going to do he needed to commit quick- the guards were getting closer by the second. 

He held out his hand to part the vines, and almost fell over when his hand connected with nothing. He managed to catch himself when his arm sunk into his forearm, still touching nothing but air and the vines he had pushed aside.

Was the cliff… hollow?

Tsukki couldn't afford to waste any more time. If he hadn’t noticed the vines were hiding anything the guards probably wouldn't either. So he took a deep breath and flung his whole body into the vines. 

He emerged on the other side unscathed. The cliff was indeed hollow, leading forward like a path. Tsukki glanced behind him to see that the vines covered the hole like a blanket, completely blocking out the light. You would have to stumble upon it by accident to know it was here at all. 

Tsukki held his breath when he heard the guards crash into the clearing. They didn’t pause. Instead Tsukki heard their thundering footsteps continue on, deeper into the woods. They didn’t know he was here. Thank god. 

Tsukki let himself lean against the wall for a minute, waiting until his breath evened out and he could feel his legs again. He needed to rest, and wait for the guards to give up their chase. 

From the end of the pathway was light, and now that he felt less exhausted he decided to go see what was on the other side. The pathway continued for a few steps, and when he stepped out into the clearing he had to catch his breath in awe. 

It was like a paradise. Green and sparkling, with perfect grass, the valley was surrounded on all sides by a sheer cliff, boxing it in so the only entrance was the one he just used. On one of the cliff faces a waterfall dropped sparkling water leisurely into a small pool. Trees that were hundreds of feet tall rose up into the sky, but that wasn’t what caught his attention. 

A tower rose up in the middle of the clearing. Or maybe it was more like a treehouse? It was built into the side of one of the trees, but it had its own support. Either way it was large and grand, and it would make a perfect shelter to wait out this mess in. 

Though he nearly wanted to cry at the thought, Tsukki pulled out his pocket knife and a dagger from his bag, double-checking to make sure the stolen necklace was safe. He was going to climb that tower, one way or another. 

Before he could something at the base of the tree caught his eye. There was a basket sitting on the ground, with a rope that wrapped around its handle and stretched up into the tower, disappearing atop a window. In the basket was what Tsukki could only guess were seeds, though he had never seen seeds of that kind before. 

That was weird to say the least, but the last of his worries. Tsukki scooped up a handful and dropped them in his bag. He could observe them more later. Maybe they were edible. Or maybe he could sell them. 

First things first he needed to climb that tower.

And that's exactly what he did. It wasn’t easy. He was still tired from his mad dash through the woods, even if his brief rest did wonders to help him recover. 

When he finally pulled himself through one of the open windows and onto the ground he was ready to collapse. From exhaustion or relief, he didn’t know. The tower inside was furnished, and actually looked quite cozy. Tsukki wondered why this mysterious tower was here in the first place, and who had decked it out like a home. 

It was the last thought that crossed his mind before a defining _BANG_ hit his ears and the world went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's outline expert issss:  
> When in doubt, knock that bitch out
> 
> ANYWAY we are picking up the pace! This is about where things REALLY get set in motion. I'm vibrating over here my subplots are all getting started no you don't understand the sUBPLOTS THEY ARE STARTING
> 
> Up next week: Tadashi and his misadventures in communicating with other human beings, Tsukki this is not the time for a gay panic, and guysIswearDaishouisntthatbadjustgivehimachance-


	4. Dandelions on the Wind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tadashi had never been particularly strong willed

“Oh my god!” Tadashi shrieked when the man slumped forward, knocked unconscious by the force of his blow. “Is he dead? Oh my god, I didn’t kill him, did I?”

Tadashi was freaking out. There was no other way to put it. He had never been in this sort of situation before, never had anyone invade his home. In fact, the only person who he had ever seen was his father, and now that someone else had come along Tadashi was wholly unprepared. 

When he heard the sounds of metal being jammed into stone and had peeked out the window to see a stranger climbing up his tower Tadashi only had so much time to think of a plan. Which ended up being a halfway cobbled together idea to knock the stranger out with the nearest frying pan.

And now that said stranger was knocked unconscious on his bedroom floor, Tadashi didn’t have a clue what to do now. Definitely didn’t help that his friends were being _very_ unhelpful. 

Once their initial panic at watching a stranger get knocked out died down they seemed to be in various stages of processing the situation. Daichi was looking upon the scene disapprovingly, Suga was crackling wickedly in the way only he could manage, and Asahi looked vaguely like he might faint at any moment. 

Tadashi could sympathize. 

Hesitantly, Tadashi reached down to poke the stranger’s cheek. No response. The stranger was quite tall from what Tadashi could tell, and he had to reach up to smack him in the head earlier. He had short blonde hair and glasses that were knocked askew. He couldn’t have been any older than Tadashi himself. And he was also… kinda cute. 

But that wasn’t important. What _was_ important was the very people Tadashi was supposed to be hiding from had found him, and he _knocked one of them out._

Wait. 

He had encountered one of the greedy humans his father had always warned him about and he held his own. He wasn’t helpless or defenseless. 

“This is perfect!” Tadashi exclaimed, leaping to his feet in a fit of joy. “It’s just what I need!” 

His friends startled, staring at him strangely. Daichi tilted his head to the side, peering up at him questioningly. 

“I can use this to convince father I can handle my own.” Tadashi explained. He could hardly believe his luck. This whole thing might be a blessing in disguise after all. “If he can see that I’m not defenseless then he’ll _have_ to let me go see the floating lights when I ask!”

Suga flapped around like it was the best idea he had ever heard, while Asahi just flopped down on the floor, heaving a distressed sigh. 

“I’ve got to hide him.” Tadashi decided, eyes flitting around to try and find a good hiding space. His loft wasn’t exactly made for hiding grown men, but he would have to make due. Right as he went to lift up the stranger, he noticed a satchel haphazardly strewn across his shoulders. 

Tadashi didn’t notice it before, but there was something in the bag that was calling to him. Pulling him in, like a magnetic field. That could only mean one thing. 

He pulled the bag off of the stranger and opened the flap while Asahi and Daichi came over to sit on his shoulder. There were several things in the bag that he brushed over, reaching to the bottom to get to what he was after. 

Scattered across the bottom of the bag was a handful of seeds. Not just any seeds, these were the seeds at the base of his tower, the ones Tadashi used to grow vines to let his father get in and out. 

He had never been allowed to just… have access to them. Whenever he asked why his father always dodged the question. His flat was kept barren of any of the plants he could manipulate and control, any seeds he could use to grow things with were tightly controlled, kept out of reach. He couldn’t even interact with the tree his tower was up against because he didn’t have access to the soil it grew from. 

Tadashi felt the plants calling to him all the time, but never had he held the seeds in his hand so freely. And never so _many._

So Tadashi dug the seeds out and tucked them into his pocket. They were a luxury he would be loath to pass up. 

With that out of the way, he turned his attention to the other things in the bag. There were various foods, a water bottle, and a dagger. There was a wrinkled and folded paper that revealed a wanted poster with the stranger's face on it. 

_TSUKISHIMA KEI, WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE_

So these others really _were_ criminals. Though the smile on Tsukishima’s face in the poster looked quite nice on him. A voice in the back of Tadashi’s head whispered that he would quite like to see Tsukishima smiling, but he ignored it. 

Tucked behind the first wanted poster was a second one with the same message. It had drawings of four people, including the one who had climbed through his window.

The last item in the bag was a necklace of some kind, the gems rich with color and shine. It was just about the prettiest thing Tadashi had ever seen. 

Suga chirped when he saw it, staring at Tadashi with wide eyes. 

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Suga was silent for a moment before he turned away, going back to tugging at Tsukishima’s hair. Daichi and Asahi also looked transfixed on the necklace, like it was important, and not just a collection of gems. 

Curiously, Tadashi got up from the floor and walked over to his mirror. Carefully he unclasped the necklace and fastened it around his neck. 

Tadashi wasn’t sure how to explain it but it felt… right. Like the necklace fit like it was always meant to be worn by him. But that was ridiculous, and Tadashi had much more important things to be worried about. He couldn’t keep getting distracted. 

“Tadashi!” 

Tadashi jumped in place when he heard the voice calling for him. It was muffled and far away, but he would recognize it anywhere.

“Uh- coming!” Tadashi shouted, fighting down the panic that started to build in his gut. Why couldn’t his father have just come home a few minutes later? Why now, when he was wholly unprepared and still reeling from the opportunity he’d been given?

Daichi watched the window anxiously, a _you're an idiot, Tadashi_ kind of look in his eyes. Suga eyed the necklace as Tadashi tossed it into Tsukishima’s bag, quickly running over to stuff it in a pot. Asahi just looked anxious, but then again he always did. 

Just as Tadashi was trying to manhandle Tsukishima over to the open closet door, he heard the whirring of the pulley system, and glanced over to see the basket of seeds hovering in the open window, pulled up by his father. 

“What’s taking you so long?”

“Just putting some things away! I’ll be right there!” Tadashi fought to keep his tone steady as he finally managed to shove Tsukishima in the closet, shutting the door with a bang. It was a bad idea to keep his father waiting, so Tadashi dashed over to the basket and picked out a single seed.

The same kind of seed he had stashed in his pocket. 

It didn’t take much prompting to get the seed to start growing, setting it on the windowsill so it had something to grip to. It was like holding the plant in a warm embrace, an easy familiarity to coax it out into the world. 

The seed sprouted and split apart, the vine bursting forth. They coiled around the tower, and Tadashi directed their growth easily. He had done this hundreds of times before after all. 

The vine ended in a neat loop, just barely brushing across the ground. Tadashi leaned out of the windowsill to see his father step onto the loop, gripping it with one hand and waving cheerily with the other, his dark cloak fluttering in the wind all the while. 

Once Tadashi was sure he was ready, he began to coax the vine to coil back upwards, using the top of the windowsill as leverage. It was an odd sight for sure, and if Tadashi hadn’t grown up being able to do this then he probably would have been terrified. His father told him plants didn’t normally move. That was an ability unique to him. 

It only took a few seconds and then his father was climbing through the windowsill, pushing his hood back. 

“Welcome back!” Tadashi chirped, absently waving at the vines to get them to uncoil, shifting elsewhere on the tower where they could continue to grow. 

“Hello flower.” Daishou unhooked the basket around his arm, setting it on a nearby table. “What have you been up to today?”

“Oh! Uh…” Behind his father Tadashi could see his friends lined up on top of the desk, silently flapping their wings around in what could only be a _tell him!_ gesture. But how was Tadashi supposed to break the subject that he had knocked out a man? “Not much.”

_Good job. Stellar._

Sometimes Tadashi wanted to smack himself. 

“Well I had an absolutely riveting day gathering hazelnuts.” Daishou rolled his eyes, a small smirk spreading across his face. “I saw at least three different squirrels run into trees. Very entertaining.”

His father shrugged his cloak off, going to set it on the coat hanger and pausing when he saw the crows on the desk. 

“Are those birds still hanging around?”

“They are the only company I can get around here.” Tadashi could never understand it, but his father never seemed to care much for the crows he called his friends. Not because he _disliked_ them, not from what Tadashi could tell. But sometimes he would look over and see Daishou staring at the birds oddly, a strange wistfulness in his eyes.

His father shook his head with a sigh. “Yes, yes. It’s just their feathers are a pain to clean. Now,” Daishou opened one of Tadashi’s desk drawers, searching around until he found a well-worn hairbrush. “Will you sing for me? I’m feeling a little worn out.”

Tadashi nodded silently, mind whirling as he dashed off to grab a chair. His father often requested to brush his hair after going out, to let the healing magic of Tadashi’s hair refresh him. Once it happened, he was usually much more open and patient than he would otherwise be. Tadashi would have the best chance of getting what he wanted if he sprung his question after.

“...yes?”

That was all the prompting Tadashi needed. 

“ _Flowergleamandglowletyourpowershine-_ ”

“Wait- why are you-” His father paused for a moment before starting to brush through Tadashi’s hair frantically. Tadashi didn’t even pause to take a breath, spitting out the words to the song that activated his healing power in one breath. 

“So guess what!” He practically shouted, spinning around in his stool to face his father who looked distinctly disheveled from the burst of healing. 

“What?” He asked after a moment, straightening his own hair and eyeing Tadashi skeptically. “You seem awfully… excited.”

“Well you know it's getting that time of year again and I just wanted to remind you that it’s almost my birthday!” Tadashi could hardly contain his excitement- the one thing he had wanted for so long and he was so close to getting it. 

“Oh.” Daishou didn’t seem particularly impressed, moving off to return the hairbrush to its place. “No no. That can’t be right. I remember.”

“What?” 

His father ruffled his hair fondly. “Your birthday was last year.” 

Tadashi could only blink up at him in surprise. “Um well… that’s kind of the thing about birthdays! They happen annually.”

Daishou only hummed. “I'm assuming you're going somewhere with this?”

“Yes!” Tadashi paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts as he tried to figure out the best way to phrase this. “I want to see the floating lights.” 

His father paused where he was absentmindedly organizing the desk, brushing the crows aside to make room. Tadashi held his breath, nerves lighting up for a moment before Daishou resumed putting paint brushes back in a cup. 

“You mean the stars.” 

That wasn’t the first time he had told Tadashi these floating lights were stars, and Tadashi had come prepared to counter it. “I’ve charted stars and they’re constant.” He said, pointing up to the massive mural covering the ceiling. “But these _only_ appear on my birthday.”

“Tadashi that's ridiculous. They are lights in the sky which means they are stars. You can see those from here.”

“But their _not_ -”

“Enough of this!” Tadashi’s father grabbed his shoulders, so that they were looking right at each other. “It’s _dangerous_ out there. It's not safe you’ll be hurt.”

And here was where Tadashi’s trump card came into play. “But that’s the thing you think I can’t handle myself.” He said, pulling away to back off towards the closet. 

His father rolled his eyes. “Oh I know you can't handle yourself.”

“But if you would look-” His hand was on the handle, ready to tug the door open. 

“Tadashi.”

“That I can-”

“ _Tadashi._ ” This wasn’t going how he wanted it to. The crows looked on worriedly, but were silent. 

“I’m not-”

“Tadashi! Drop it!”

Tadashi paused, hand still hovering on the closet handle. His father sounded angry. He wasn’t usually one to get cross, and Tadashi was always left pausing when he raised his voice.

“You are _not_ leaving this tower.” His father spoke lowly. “Ever. I’m doing this to protect you.”

And it was like Tadashi’s world came crashing down. 

He barely registered his hand slipping away from the handle. Didn’t know if his face showed how crestfallen he was. But something must have given it away because his father crossed the room in a few quick strides to pull him into a hug.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered, but Tadashi wasn’t really paying attention. He felt… sad, of course. Disappointed and upset, but there was a spark of an idea that was beginning to bloom in his mind and it stole his attention from the rest of the world. “I really do want what's best for you.”

Tadashi only nodded mutely. Slowly, surely, his idea was taking root in his mind. Begging to be executed. 

Tadashi had never been particularly strong-willed. 

“How about instead of the… stars,” Somewhere in the back of his mind a voice protested that they _weren't_ stars, but Tadashi quieted it. “I want some more of that paint from the caves. The ones made from the seashells?”

Tadashi pulled his head away from his father’s shoulder to peer up at him hopefully, putting on his best pleading expression. 

“That’s almost a two week round trip.” Daishou raised an eyebrow skeptically, but he looked significantly less upset than earlier. 

“I just thought it was a better idea than the stars…”

And that was enough to do his father in. “Alright then. Paints from the caves it is.” Daishou pulled away, going to grab his clock from the coat hanger. “I suppose I’ll have to leave now and if I run maybe I can make it before your birthday. What do you say?” He pulled his hood up around his head, smiling at Tadashi. “Steal a horse and be there and back in a week?”

“Don’t rush yourself.” Tadashi assured, grabbing the abandoned basket to load it with as much food as it could hold. His evil little plan was already coming along well, but judging by the glints in the crows’ eye’s they could tell he was up to something. Hopefully, his father wouldn't pick up on that too. “Here!”

“Aren't you being helpful?” His father remarked, but he didn’t seem like he suspected anything. Tadashi reached into the basket still hovering outside the window and picked up a seed. He held it out to the open air, letting it sprout around his hand before dropping it on the window sill so it could wrap around the tower in earnest. 

“Are you going to be fine on your own?” Daishou asked, pausing just before he grabbed onto the vine. 

“Yeah! Don’t worry about me.” Tadashi gestured behind him where the crows were knocking the paintbrushes out of the cup again. “I’ve got them with me.”

His father shrugged, reaching out to pull Tadashi into one last hug. “I’ll miss you.”

And Tadashi allowed himself to enjoy it for a moment, letting his mind clear of all other worries. It would be a comfort he would miss, but it would only be two weeks. No matter what he decided to do in the in-between, the time wouldn't change. He could do two weeks.

When his father slid down the vine, taking the basket of seeds with him, Tadashi didn’t let himself feel the guilt creeping up. He was going to do this. He would be strong, no matter what.

* * *

When Tsukki woke up the first thing to greet him was the dull throbbing in the back of his head. It was like an old ache, not sharp enough to command his attention but definitely there. The second thing he noticed was that his glasses were hanging _painfully_ low on his nose, ready to fall off at any moment. 

Without opening his eyes Tsukki went to reach for his glasses and put them back into place, but was met with resistance. His eyes snapped open, and he found himself hunched over in a chair, his arms tied to the armrests. Were those… vines?

Tsukki tipped his head back to let his glasses fall back into their proper place so he could see better. Above him was blackness, covered with pinpricks of light, and it took Tsukki a moment to realize that he was not looking up at the night sky, but rather a painting of it. 

But there were more important things at hand than a painting of the sky, so he let his gaze fall back down. Those were definitely vines acting as makeshift ropes, and Tsukki would have laughed at the absurdity of it all if he wasn't growing increasingly worried. 

The vines trailed away from the chair he was seated in and Tsukki followed their trail around the space he was trapped in. It was the same tower he had climbed into before being knocked out, but the space seemed much more sinister now that it was covered in shadow, the window shutters drawn. 

The vines trailed up into the rafters and halted behind one of the beams. Sitting on the front of the post were three crows, peering down at him with inquisitive eyes. One was stockier, with a pitch-black coat, and stared at him blandly. The next had a distinctly silver shine to it, and seemed almost amused. The third was the biggest, and if a bird could look shy then this was proof. But all of them seemed to have far more emotion than any crow should, and it put Tsukki on edge. 

When Tsukki had hatched a plan to steal the royal necklace he had expected to run the risk of being captured and executed, not kidnapped by mysterious forces. This was above his pay grade, and Tsukki wanted out. 

He only got to pull at the vines for a few moments before a voice interrupted him. 

“Struggling is pointless.” 

The voice came from behind the beam the vines disappeared behind, where the birds were perched. Tsukki had to squint through the darkness to see, but sure enough, there was the shadow of a person halfway hiding behind the beam. 

Slowly the figure stepped into the light provided by the ceiling light illuminating the entire flat. It was… a boy. He couldn’t have been older than Tsukki, and he looked pale, like he had never been in the sun save for a splatter of freckles across his face. His hair was pinned up in the back, a few strands escaping the hairdo and falling around his shoulders. The hair itself was probably black if Tsukki had to guess but the way the light caught it made it look green, a slightly subdued version of his eyes. 

He was really cute, and if the stranger hadn’t been holding Tsukki hostage then he might have even tried to hit on him. Maybe. If he was in a good mood that day. 

As they were Tsukki would have been perfectly happy having never met this odd, attractive stranger.

“Who are you?” Tsukki demanded, his voice echoing across the rafters. 

“That’s for me to know and you to find out, _Tsukishima Kei_.” The stranger glared down at him, and Tsukki’s mind immediately started fishing around for an explanation why the stranger knew his name. The only thing Tsukki had on him that had his name was those wanted posters, but those were in his satchel. 

“Where is my satchel?” This was bad. Really, really bad. That satchel had the necklace in it, the very thing he and his friends had risked their lives for. Tsukki couldn’t lose it. 

“I’ve hidden it.” The stranger looked very proud of himself, like he had just pulled off the world's greatest scheme. “And if you want to see it again then you’ll answer my questions.”

The stranger hopped down from the rafters, the crows leaping down after him. Now that he was closer Tsukki could see a frying pan clutched in one of his hands. If he had to guess that was the object responsible for the throbbing in the back of his skull. In the other, it seemed like he was holding the end of the vines, but closer inspection revealed that the vines were attached to small shells sitting in the palm of his hand- seeds maybe? Weird.

“How did you find me?” The stranger demanded, glaring at him in a way Tsukki was sure was meant to be intimidating. Truthfully the silver crow sitting on his shoulder had a better glare than he did. But the stranger was trying. Tsukki could give him that much. 

“Uh… I was being chased, I saw a tower and I climbed it.” Tsukki answered dryly. What was he supposed to tell this person? That he was a criminal being chased by the royal guards?

The stranger’s eyes narrowed but he seemed to accept the answer after a moment. “What do you want with my hair? To cut it? Sell it?” He held up his frying pan like it was a dagger, and Tsukki leaned away from it as much as the vines allowed him. 

“Your _hair_?” Tsukki raised a skeptic eyebrow. “Why would I want your hair?”

The stranger blinked at this, and he seemed surprised at Tsukki’s disinterest for his hair. “You… you don’t want my hair?”

“No?”

The stranger said nothing, staring at Tsukki for a long moment. Tsukki hoped that was all the questions he had- he just wanted his satchel back. 

“Alright Tsukki,” The stranger started to walk back over to the beams stretching up into the rafters, hopping up them. Tsukki sighed a little at the nickname. He had always found it somewhat stupid, but that didn’t stop his friends from calling him it. And now this stranger holding him hostage was too. “I’m prepared to offer you a deal.”

He pointed up to the ceiling and Tsukki followed his finger to see the star mural from before. But the stranger was pointing to the corner of the painting, along the bottom. There were larger flecks of light there in a rectangle shape, stretching along the painting in a trail. 

“In a few day’s time, the floating lights will make their annual appearance.” The stranger said. 

“You mean the lantern thing they do for the prince?” Tsukki asked. He had never heard them be called floating lights before, but the lantern festival on the prince's birthday _was_ in just a few days. 

“I knew they weren’t stars.” The stranger whispered, looking strangely elated. But the moment passed and he cleared his throat, back to business. “Well, I want you to escort me to see these lanterns and then return me safely to my tower. Then, and _only_ then, will I return your satchel.”

“No way.” Tsukki answered the moment the stranger was done speaking. “Me and the kingdom aren't exactly in good graces right now, and I need to find my friends. So I won’t be taking you anywhere.”

The stranger didn’t take kindly to that. They hopped down from the rafters, the crows on his shoulders scattering to flock around the flat. 

“You can tear this tower down brick by brick,” The stranger said lowly, stalking forward and tipping the chair Tsukki was on so that they were face to face. “But without my help you will _never_ find your satchel. You're a criminal, aren’t you? You probably stole that pretty necklace in there. How much trouble would it cause if you lost it?”

Shit. This stranger was seeing right through him and Tsukki was nothing if not unnerved. He was right. Tsukki would be in trouble if he lost the necklace. He and his friends risked life and limb for that necklace. He couldn’t just let it be stolen like that. He would never forgive himself.

But at the same time he couldn’t just abandon his friends to go prance back to the kingdom with a stranger. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place. 

“Tell you what freckles-”

“Tadashi.”

“Alright then Tadashi,” At least Tsukki wouldn’t have to call him ‘the stranger’ anymore. “I’ll take your deal, _but_ we have to make some pit stops to look for my friends first.”

Tadashi considered it for a moment, letting the back legs of Tsukki’s chair hit the ground. “Alright.” He said after a second, nodding. “I accept your terms.”

“And you promise I get my satchel back? And the necklace?” 

“I promise. And when I promise something,” Tadashi’s eyes looked deadly serious. “I never _ever_ break that promise.”

Tadashi started tugging on the vines before Tsukki could say anything and they fell away like liquid, as if they hadn’t been strong enough to keep him there just a moment ago. 

“We leave immediately.” Tadashi decided, and Tsukki held back a groan as he stretched his wrists out. Looks like it was back down the tower for him. His dagger was in his satchel which was currently hidden, so he had to do it with only his pocket knife now. Great. 

Tsukki assumed that Tadashi knew how to get down from the tower on his own, so he lowered himself past the window and started the long climb down, using his pocket knife to make a handhold as he went down. The climb wasn’t particularly _long_ but it was tiring and boring, and Tsukki sighed in relief when he hit the ground. 

Tsukki turned away from the tower for a moment, wondering how long it would take Tadashi to get down. The sooner they could get this over with the better. 

A swooshing sound came from somewhere behind him and Tsukki glanced back to see Tadashi sliding towards the ground using one of those vines as a rope. Tsukki could only stare, his mind doing a double-take. The whole tower was covered in vines, but Tsukki was sure none of them had been directly in front of the window like that. If there was he would have used it to slide down himself. 

Tadashi stopped himself right before he hit the grass, hovering in the air for a moment. Like he was debating. The crows hovered in the air around him, flying gentle circles. They chirped at him, and Tsukki thought it sounded something like encouragement. 

After a long moment Tadashi let his legs uncurl and he set them upon the grass. The wonder on his face was tangible, and Tsukki stayed silent, simply observing. Tadashi was acting like he had never seen something as trivial as _grass_ before. It was baffling, and also… concerning. 

There was something amiss about the boy who lived amongst the trees, and it wasn’t just that he slid down vines that _definetly_ wasn’t there before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tsukki totally has all the sass of Flynn except instead of using it to charm people he's just aggressively snarky, somebody come take him home. 
> 
> Today's chapterly expert issss:
> 
> And yams is like sHIT **(we wanna punch a snek bitch)**
> 
> Up next week: Bokuto calls Tsukki 'kind of an asshole', the flowers teach Daishou about kidnapping, Kuroo needs to watch that snark before it gets him killed, and Akaashi harnesses the power of subplots.


	5. Rearranged, Reassembled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything was cold, and quiet, and empty. The opposite of how it should be.

Bokuto didn’t have that hard of a time outrunning the guards. He had always been athletic, and he knew the woods better than they did. Plus he didn’t have to worry about protecting the necklace- that was Tsukki’s job. He just needed to shake them off. 

By the time he had pulled it off Bokuto found himself deep in the woods. It wasn’t the parts that he was immediately familiar with, but he didn't think he was so lost that he couldn’t find his way back. There were no paths in this part of the woods, but quickly climbing up one of the nearby towering trees allowed him to get his bearings. 

When their group split up it was a hasty decision. They didn’t have a set meeting spot, and they had all run in different directions. Bokuto didn’t really have anything to do on his own. The sooner they left for the next kingdom and got rid of the necklace the better. Plus Bokuto couldn’t lie that he was somewhat anxious, being separated from everyone else. He had always been the kind of person to prefer being in a group. 

So Bokuto made up his mind to start searching for them. He wouldn't be able to find them if he just walked around the woods aimlessly- he needed to gather information. And he knew just the place. 

It only took him about an hour to walk to the Grand King after finding the path weaving through the woods. The Grand King was a quaint little pub nestled in the middle of the woods. Bokuto had only visited it in passing but he remembered it well. It was one of the few notable landmarks in the woods. Aside from the pathways leading to other kingdoms, there wasn’t much in the woods.

When Bokuto entered the pub the first thing to greet him was the noise from the patrons inside. They jostled and joked, laughing merrily over mugs of whatever alcohol was being served this time. It was the kind of infectious energy Bokuto could slip into easily, but he knew some of his friends wouldn't like it. Akaashi had never liked how uproarious it could get. 

Thinking about Akaashi made Bokuto sad. It was lonely being separated, but that only made Bokuto more determined to find him. 

Bokuto glanced at the tack board set up near the entrance, quickly scanning the notes posted about various criminals and the rewards offered for their capture. His group hasn't made an appearance yet, and Bokuto let himself sigh in relief. The longer they can go without bounties on their heads the better. But that would only last so long. If everything had gone their way they would have been out of the kingdom by now for exactly this reason. 

Tugging his hood further over his head, Bokuto made his way to the back of the pub, where the bar was set up. The bartender was behind the counter, wiping a glass with a towel. He was wearing the usual uniform of the employees but his tie was a mint green instead of the usual white. Was he the owner then?

Across from him was a man with dark spiky hair, leaning on the counter and absently circling a glass around so that the liquid swirled. If Bokuto had to guess, he was probably a mercenary of some kind. He had an armored breastplate on, and had a rather impressive sword leaning on his chair. Bokuto had always wanted a sword but Akaashi had told him he needed to learn how to use one first. 

As Bokuto made his way over he could overhear snippets of the bartender and the mercenaries' conversation. “So anyway I told Makki that all the good bounties got posted in the kingdom pubs first and he- hey are you listening Iwa-chan?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s the last thing I said?”

“Hey are you listening Iwa-chan?” The mercenary- Iwa-chan?- drawled, in a terrible imitation of the bartender's voice.

“No no, not that! Before!”

If there was anyone who could provide Bokuto with the information he needed it would probably be the bartender. As entertaining as their conversation was the clock was ticking. Word of their crime would only continue to spread. 

“Hey are you the owner?” Bokuto interrupted, sliding into the seat next to the mercenary. “I have a question for you.”

The bartender paused, staring at him for a second. “I’m the owner, yeah.” He said after a moment, setting the glass he was dying on the counter. “Oikawa Tooru. And this brute here,” He nodded across the counter. “Is Iwa-chan.”

“Iwaizumi.” The mercenary corrected gruffly. 

Bokuto weighed the pros and cons before answering. “I’m Bokuto.” He eventually said. If there were no wanted posters on the tavern walls then these people probably wouldn’t recognize his name. Still Bokuto shouldn’t linger long here- the threat of getting turned in for bounty money was too high. 

“What’s your query traveler?” Oikawa asked with a smile Bokuto was sure was practiced. “We make killer cherry cocktails if that's your thing.”

“I’m looking for my friends.” Bokuto said. “There's three of them and I’m not sure if they’ve come by here. One of them is really tall.” Bokuto raised his hand in what he hoped was an accurate depiction of Tsukki’s height. “Blonde, glasses, kind of an asshole?”

Oikawa considered it but shook his head. “Nope. Haven't seen anyone like that.”

Iwaizumi nodded his agreement. “Me neither.”

“Um, well there's another one who’s just a bit taller than me. He’s got awful bed head, black hair, likes to smirk like he knows something you don't.”

“Haven't seen anyone like that either.” Oikawa said. “Though Mattsun does like to smirk like that sometimes.”

“He and Makki both.” Iwaizumi muttered. “I don’t know what's wrong with them.”

That was more concerning. Two out of three friends hadn’t been spotted, but there was still one left. “Well the third has curly black hair and green eyes.” Bokuto said. “He's a little shorter than me and he's the prettiest person you’ve ever seen.”

“Awww.” Oikawa cooed, leaning on the counter to grin at him. “You seem quite biased towards this third friend Bokkun.”

“If you saw him you would understand.”

Iwaizumi snorted. “Right. Don’t you sound love struck.”

“But unfortunately I haven't seen anyone like that around either.” Oikawa sighed, and Iwazumi nodded. “So either your friends haven't come by here, or you're just really bad at describing them.”

Bokuto slumped down onto the counter slightly. “No, I think I got them pretty well. They're probably not around here.” Bokuto couldn’t help but feel somewhat dejected, even if he knew it was stupid. This was only one place he had checked out of a whole forest. But Bokuto couldn't very well search the entire forest for his friends, and the Grand Kind was his most readily available source of information. 

“Sorry we couldn’t be of any help.” Iwaizumi said, but Bokuto just waved him off. 

“Don’t be. I’ll find em, I just gotta look!” Bokuto hopped off the stool, dusting off his clothes. 

“Bye Bokkun!” Oikawa called with a cheery wave as Bokuto started off for the door. “Good luck on your search!” 

Bokuto waved at them over his shoulder before pushing the pub’s door open and emerging back out into the light, pushing past someone with bright orange hair and a tall raven-haired boy coming in. Outside the sun was higher in the sky, hanging directly over his head. The morning had already been eaten up by the heist and their subsequent getaway. If Bokuto left now, he could be at the kingdom right at nightfall. 

He was going to go back to their hideout in the kingdom. It was nothing more than an abandoned building on the outskirts of the kingdom they had fixed up, but it was as good a home a couple of orphans could get. 

It was risky. There was nowhere more dangerous for them right now than the kingdom. But Bokuto thought it was the best option for where the others would eventually wander back. Hopefully, the others would get the same idea and they would all regroup back at their hideout.

Bokuto could only hope his friends could make it there safely.

* * *

Tadashi had always loved flower language and Daishou could never figure out why. Daishou didn’t put much stock in the meanings given to various flowers- to him they were just plants. Nothing more. 

But Tadashi had always seen something more. Like he thought the flowers could represent your very soul. Daishou brought him a book on flower language from the kingdom a few years ago and for months he saw Tadashi pouring over the book like it could tell him the secrets of the world. 

Daishou had never understood it, but it made Tadashi happy. Countless conversations over dinner had passed with Tadashi talking about his beloved flowers, while Daishou simply listened silently. The only flower that had ever mattered to Daishou was gone, fed to the boy in front of him. It was quite ironic, really. 

Through these countless conversations Daishou had learned quite a bit more about flowers than he ever would willingly. And among these things he learned that Tadashi’s favorite flower was a Pimpernel. 

They meant resilience, humility, and represented major life change. Tadashi had always been enamored with them. Once Daishou brought him some Pimpernel seeds and let him grow a few, one of the few plants he’d been allowed to have. 

They weren't much to look at, nothing extraordinary, but Daishou was confident he could pick them out of a line up with relative ease. So when he saw a bundle of them sprouting along the base of the tree he knew immediately what flower they were. 

The tower wasn’t that far. Daishou hadn’t gotten too far out before spotting the flowers, and it wouldn't be more than a minor inconvenience to swing back and bring Tadashi the flowers. Maybe it would help ease over the edges of their spat earlier. 

Daishou had to admit he felt bad. He didn’t particularly like fighting with Tadashi. While he had no problem throwing spitting insults at others he had grown fond of the boy over the years. Yes, the flowers were a good idea.

When he arrived at the tower and Tadashi didn’t answer his call Daishou wasn’t particularly worried. The time was steadily creeping towards the evening, even if the sun was still high in the sky. He may have just been taking a midday nap. 

He was more concerned when those crows he always tried to ignore didn’t appear on the windowsill. This wasn’t the first time Daishou had shown up when Tadashi wasn’t available to bring him up, but the crows always appeared in the window, chirping up a storm to let him know what was going. 

But they didn’t appear. And Daishou couldn’t fight down the worry growing in his gut. Those birds had been inseparable from Tadashi ever since Daishou left his old home to move to the tower. They wouldn't just _leave._ Where Tadashi went the birds did too. 

The implications of that didn’t ease his worries at all. 

There was a hidden passage at the base of the tower Daishou had used to get in and out when Tadashi was young. It was boarded up now, its purpose obsolete, but Daishou didn’t have a hard time ripping away the stones haphazardly piled at the base to expose the passage.

He tore up the stairs, sprinting for the loft at the very top of the tower where Tadashi spent all his time. When he got to the loft, it was dark. The windows all had their shutters drawn, save for the large window Daishou used to climb through. 

Tadashi never kept the windows closed. He loved the sunlight, always had all the windows thrown open as far as they would go. 

“Tadashi?” Daishou shouted into the darkness. His voice echoes across the walls, answered by no one. Desperately Daishou ran around the loft, checking all the places he could have disappeared to. The bed was empty. The rafters were occupied by nothing but dust. The closet was barren. 

Everything was cold, and quiet, and empty. The opposite of how it should be. 

The only sound echoing through the loft was the fading sounds of his despair and the Pimpernels hitting the floor. 

Tadashi was gone. Disappeared, off to someplace Daishou didn’t know. This was bad. Disastrous. Catastrophic. 

But out of the corner of his vision a gleam caught his eye. Daishou shifted his gaze to stare at it straight on. It was coming from under one of the stair boards. Daishou knew from experience that it was hollow- it was him, after all, who pried the top off so that a much younger Tadashi could have a secret hiding spot.

Daishou pulled the top of the stair off, revealing its hollow interior. Inside was a sturdy brown satchel Daishou had never seen before. It didn’t belong to Tadashi, of that he was sure, and it made his blood run cold. 

The satchel was stuffed full of food and water and Daishou also found a rather concerning dagger. But it didn’t compare to the shock the other item inside gave him. 

A necklace. A finely carved one, exquisite in its beauty and practically dripping with gems of every color. But it wasn’t the necklace itself that was so terrifying, but rather who it belonged to. This was the missing prince’s necklace. _Tadashi’s_ necklace.

Someone had brought it here. Someone had taken the necklace and brought it all the way out here and now Tadashi was missing. 

Before Daishou could spiral too far into his thoughts, his hands caught on the final item in the bag. Two papers, well worn and crumpled. The first was a wanted poster with four men drawn on the front. They were criminals, the paper declared. Thieves to be exact. 

The second was also a wanted poster but it only contained one person. The name Tsukishima Kei was scrawled across the front, along with a hefty amount of reward money. Daishou put the papers side by side, and indeed Tsukishima was on both posters. Those others must have been his accomplices.

There was no way the prince’s necklace would just appear here. It was supposed to be safe in the castle, and if it was out here then it must have been stolen. Stolen by this Tsukishima. This bag must have belonged to him, or at least Daishou would imagine.

Either way he wasn’t here now and he left his bag behind. Tsukishima was the only lead Daishou had to find Tadashi. It couldn’t be a coincidence that Tadashi disappeared right after a thief showed up at his door. 

Daishou’s life was quite literally hanging in the balance. Without Tadashi’s power he would be dead in a matter of weeks. So Daishou grabbed the satchel and slung it over his shoulder, gripping the dagger in his hand tightly. After a moment of consideration he scooped up the fallen Pimpernels and stuffed them in the bag too. 

Dagger in hand, Daishou made his way back down the passage. He was willing to do whatever it took to track down Tadashi and bring him back.

* * *

The woods were really starting to get on Kuroo’s nerves. There was nothing fresh about them, nothing exciting. Just trees, more trees, a rock every once in a while, and oh look! More trees!

Tsukki had always sarcastically said he was a ‘city boy’ but maybe he was right. Kuroo was really _really_ sick of the endless wandering. It was woods and woods and more woods. Rinse wash and repeat. He needed change or he would go insane. At this point he would have even welcomed those annoying guards he had ditched ages ago- anything to relive the mind-numbing boredom that came from hours lost in the woods. 

So he could hardly be blamed for his excitement when he spotted a hooded figure making its way through the trees. 

“Hey!” Kuroo shouted, and the figure halted, turning toward him slightly. Kuroo dashed through the trees, hopping over rocks and bushes to reach the traveler. They had a long cloak on so Kuroo couldn’t see anything of them as he got closer, but they were human and that was good enough for him. 

The traveler glanced up as Kuroo approached, screaming all the while. The hood kept his face in shadow but his eyes were green and slanted, like a snake. “Are you lost?” Kuroo asked, finally coming to a stop next to the stranger. “Because I am, and I was wondering if you-”

The stranger moved so fast Kuroo didn’t register what was happening until it was too late. In one fluid motion, he whipped his hand around and shoved Kuroo back a few steps, slamming him into a tree. Reflexes kicked in and Kuroo flinched, squeezing his eyes shut against the sudden assault. 

Cold metal pressed against his throat, and Kuroo opened his eyes, staring down at the stranger, and then to the dagger pressed to his throat. 

All at once his mouth felt very dry and he was hyper-aware of how easy it would be for the stranger to slit his throat like this. A single cut and he would be dead in minutes. 

“Your one of those thieves.” The stranger spoke after a moment. He sounded sure of himself, no room for doubt in his tone. There would be no convincing him that Kuroo was not who he thought he was, but Kuroo had to try. 

“Thieves?” Kuroo had never been the best actor but he did his best to feign innocence, subtly inching away from the knife. “What are you talking about?”

“Bullshit.” The stranger dug the dagger into his skin harder and Kuroo froze up, trying desperately not to cut his throat open on the metal accidentally. “Your one of them, don't even try to deny it.” He reached into a bag slung around his chest, and Kuroo realized he recognized it. It was _Tsukki’s_ bag. And here he was thinking the situation couldn't get any worse. 

From the bag the stranger pulled out one of their older wanted posters with the four of them drawn on the front. “No one else would have hair this ridiculous _Kuroo_.” He said, pointing to Kuroo on the poster. Kuroo had half a mind to be offended, but he was far too concerned with the knife still pressed to his throat. It wasn't a pleasant sensation at all.

Kuroo was rapidly running out of cards to play and he couldn't deny that he was getting panicked. Forget what he said earlier- he’d be perfectly content being alone in the woods. “What are you going to do?” He asked after a moment, his voice barely louder than a whisper. “Are you after the reward money?”

The stranger watched him with cold eyes. It was unnerving. Kuroo just couldn't get a read on him. “No.”

“No?”

“I’m after something else, and you're going to help me get it.” The stranger finally pulled away, the dagger falling away from Kuroo’s throat. Relief washed through him like a tidal wave, but before any thoughts of escape could run across his mind the stranger pulled something else out of Tsukki’s bag that made him stop short. 

The necklace that they had risked their lives for. The stranger clutched it in his hand tightly, holding it up for Kuroo to see. That was the necklace Tsukki was supposed to be protecting. If this stranger had it, then what happened to Tsukki?

“If you help me I’ll give you your necklace and you can run free. But if you refuse,” The stranger lifted his dagger once more, and upon closer inspection, Kuroo realized that it too belonged to Tsukki. “Then I will have no choice but to kill you. Or turn you in. Whichever is more convenient for me.”

Kuroo didn’t really have a choice, did he? No matter what happened he couldn’t let the necklace they risked everything for to be stolen. It was a bargaining chip too powerful for him to resist. 

“What do you want?”

The stranger slipped the necklace back into Tsukki’s bag before replying. “I have reason to believe that Tsukishima Kei has kidnapped my son. I want you to take me to him. Once I have my son back I’ll give you your necklace and we can part ways.”

“Son?” Kuroo blinked in disbelief. “You don’t look old enough to have a son.” 

The stranger only fixed him with an exasperated gaze. “He’s… adopted. I’m not that old. Probably no older than you.” He turned up his nose slightly like it was a point of pride to him. 

But it didn’t matter. That was the wrong thing to be focusing on right now anyway. 

“Kidnapping?” Kuroo asked sceptically. Tsukki didn’t even _like_ people, there's no way he would kidnap someone’s kid just because. Much less when they were all scattered around in the middle of a very perilous situation. There was no way. “Tsukki would never.”

The stranger only raised a skeptical eyebrow. “I returned to our home and my son was gone while your friend's bag was hidden inside. I can assure you my son wouldn't just run off.”

Kuroo still had his doubts, but he had a feeling the stranger wouldn’t listen to them. “Well it doesn't matter either way. I don’t know where he is. We all got split up.”

“You're still the best lead I have.” The stranger said. “You will help me find them or I will turn you into the authorities. Do we have a deal?”

Kuroo didn’t have a choice now did he? But the stranger seemed to be completely disinterested in the necklace and the reward money so long as he got his son back. If all went according to plan, Kuroo could track down Tsukki, figure out what was going on with the stranger's son, and then they could take the necklace and be on their way. They could salvage this situation after all. 

“We have a deal.” Kuroo muttered. The stranger nodded happily, slipping the knife into his sleeve. It wasn’t completely put away, but Kuroo would take it. “So what’s your name?” Kuroo asked. “If we’re going to be stuck with each other for the foreseeable future.”

The stranger didn’t answer for a moment, simply turning away to start heading down the barely-there path once more. “Daishou.” He finally said. “Daishou Suguru.”

“Daishou.” Kuroo muttered. “That’s a stupid name.”

Daishou turned to look at him with cold eyes, holding up his arm in a silent threat, the shape of the dagger visible under the sleeve. “Watch out Kuroo. I can still change my mind.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s just get searching.”

Kuroo had gotten away with his life but it felt like he’d left behind one bad situation and entered the next. There was definitely no love lost between him and Daishou Suguru.

* * *

Akaashi wasn’t lost himself but he was willing to bet his friends were. It was a mad dash through the woods while they all tried to shake off the guards but Akaashi had made sure to loop around parts of the woods he had recognized until the guards were gone. 

Indeed, he knew where _he_ was, but he didn’t know where his friends were. Without a definitive meeting spot Akaashi had a feeling it would take them a while to reunite. It was… worrisome to say the least. The longer they were separated and stuck near the kingdom the more danger they were in. 

But he couldn’t worry about that now. It was getting dark as night fell on the forest, and if Akaashi tried to keep going in the middle of the night he would surely wander out of the area he was familiar with. He needed to find a place to stay for the night. 

The trees started to thin out as Akaashi got close to a clearing he remembered. It was mostly shrouded by rocks, and would make a good enough temporary camp until morning came. Akaashi couldn't help but be relieved. It had been a long day and he wanted nothing more than to curl up and sleep. It was just a shame it would be on the dirt. 

He was so wrapped in his thoughts of finally getting to rest that he didn’t hear the voices ringing through the night until he was face to face with their owners. Akaashi froze up, staring wide-eyed at the people occupying the clearing. 

One was quite small with a shock of orange hair, and the other was taller with raven hair and piercing blue eyes. Their clothes were mismatched, assembled from many different places, but they were well worn and the incomplete armor pieces they had strapped on were in far from pristine condition. They almost reminded Akaashi of road bandits, but their hoods and daggers gave Akaashi the impression that these were people who were familiar with the forest and the ways of people both. 

Rogues then. Bandits but fancier, as Bokuto would say. 

“Kageyama!” The smallest shrieked, leaping off the fallen tree trunk they had been sitting on and just narrowly avoiding stepping on the fire they had set up in a circle of stones. “Oh my god, someone is here!” He fumbled with his belt, going for a knife, and Akaashi took the spare second he had been given to survey his surroundings. 

The clearing had a small makeshift tent pitched in the corner. It was nothing more than a tree branch with a long cloth thrown over it, but it looked well lived in. There were bags leaned up against the big boulders, the firepit was well dug out and food was sizzling in a pot next to the fire. It had been a while since Akaashi had visited this particular clearing, and it seemed someone had moved in during that time. 

Akaashi had stepped completely away from the tree line, but he was far enough away that he might be able to duck back out of the clearing and make a clean getaway. But if the rogues decided to follow then Akaashi might have problems- he was tired after the day's events, and he was willing to bet the rogues knew these woods better than him if they really were living here. If it was a dash in the dark Akaashi didn’t like his odds. 

The other rogue- Kageyama- glanced up, dropping the half-eaten fruit in his hand and stared at Akaashi in shock. The first had managed to free his knife from his belt, but right as Akaashi turned to dash away Kageyama spoke.

“Dumbass! Hinata don't attack him, he isn’t a guard!” Kageyama shouted. Both Akaashi and Hinata paused, and Akaashi turned back to face him. Were they only concerned with staying away from guards? They weren't worried about defending themselves?

Hinata blinked and turned back to Akaashi. Akaashi stood there silently, staring back. He wasn’t sure why he wasn’t turning heel and running- by all means he should. But for whatever reason these rogues weren’t attacking him, and Akaashi could always do without a chase. 

“Wait!” Hinata suddenly exclaimed, pointing at Akaashi like he had just had a grand revelation. “You're one of the guys on those new wanted posters! Who stole the necklace!”

Akaashi could feel himself freeze up, his muscles going tense as fight or flight kicked in. He had been recognized. Besides the obviously worrying fact word had spread far enough already for rogues to know who he was, he had also been recognized. Now they would turn him in for the reward money and he would never be able to escape and then he would be sent to the gallows and he would never see Bokuto again and then-

“Oh thank god.” Hinata flopped back down on the log with a sigh. “Why didn’t you say so? You gave me a fright.”

“...What?” Akaashi’s mind was drawing a complete blank. He felt like a fish out of water. Who are these rogues and why were they not turning him in even knowing who he was? Knowing the bounty hanging over his head?

Kageyama scooped up his half-eaten fruit- now covered in dirt- and chucked it into the trees. “We won’t turn you in if that's what you're worried about.”

“What not?” Akaashi asked suspiciously. Why shouldn’t they try and turn him in? 

Kageyama shrugged. “Mostly because if we went up to the guards _we’d_ get arrested too.”

“Come sit with us!” Hinata patted the spot on the log next to him, grinning happily. “You look tired. I saw your wanted poster at the pub earlier, your Akashi right? Akaashi?”

“Akaashi.” Akaashi corrected, taking slow steps into their camp. There didn’t seem to be any immediate danger, and something about these rogues made him want to let his guard down. In a way, they reminded him of his friends. Hinata especially- his infectious energy reminded him of a certain owl haired man. 

“Well I’m Hinata,” Hinata pointed to himself, before gesturing over to the scowling boy with black hair. “And that’s Kageyama.”

“What do you mean you’d get arrested?” Akaashi took the seat Hinata offered him, watching them carefully. Hinata looked excited by this change of events, while Kageyama just looked somewhat bored. “What did you do? Usually the kingdom doesn’t get involved with rogue crimes in the woods.”

Hinata grabbed a flask of water from somewhere around the log and offered it to Akaashi, taking a long swig when Akaashi refused. “Well…” Hinata cleared his throat awkwardly. “It’s nothing really. It’s totally fine.”

“It was pretty bad.” Kageyama interrupted. “Very bad. Don’t listen to him. It’s worse than what you did. Maybe.”

“I’m getting conflicting messages here.” Akaashi leaned back slightly, shifting his gaze around to look at both of the rogues on either side of him. “Was it a big deal, or wasn’t it?”

“Ah, fuck it.” Hinata threw his arms up in the air. “You can’t turn us in either, so who cares! Might as well tell you.”

“Hinata is dating one of the kingdom nobles.” Kagayama glanced around the clearing suspiciously, leaning in to whisper in Akaashi’s ear like there was someone spying on them. “And they got _caught._ ”

“What?” Akaashi jerked away, staring at Hinata in shock. “You were _dating_ a noble? But you… you're a rogue!”

“We weren't always rogues.” Hinata shrugged. “We used to just be commoners living in the kingdom.”

“That's still very illegal…” Akaashi muttered. It was just the way things were for the people in the kingdom. Commoners weren't allowed to be in relationships with the nobility and it had been that way for hundreds of years. It just wasn't done, and if you were found guilty of this crime the commoner was executed. It was the same punishment Akaashi was facing for stealing a necklace. 

“It was worth it though!” Hinata leaned forward to rest his head in his hands, staring into the fire dreamily. “He’s the best person on the entire planet. His name is Kenma, and I would die for him. But Kageyama won’t let me.”

“When they got caught we left to escape for the woods.” Kageyama elaborated when Hinata went silent, staring out into the woods wistfully, out in the direction Akaashi knew the kingdom was. “We grew up together, Hinata and I.” Kageyama’s voice was a lot quieter, and Akaashi almost felt like they were bearing their soul to him, sharing a piece of their hearts even though they had only just met. Quick to trust and quick to love. It reminded him of Bokuto even more. 

“I couldn’t sit back and let Hinata be executed. So we packed our things and fled to the woods together.” 

“Yeah he’s an idiot.” Hinata spoke up. Some of the life in his voice was back, now returned to its teasing and energetic tone. “Bakayama here is a criminal too now, for aiding and abetting me.”

“What was I supposed to do? Let you die?”

“Well you didn’t have to be a criminal too!”

“You're an idiot, oh my god just stop talking.”

Hinata stuck his tongue out, grinning wildly. “Nah you love me! You became a criminal for me!”

Well, they were definitely eccentric. 

“Anyway that was like a whole year ago.” Hinata rolled his eyes. “But you know how these things are. If we get caught we’ll be arrested no matter how long it's been. They’re big sticklers over this.”

“If it’s been so long why are you still hanging around the kingdom?” Akaashi asked. “If there's no hope of returning why don’t you leave for another kingdom? Surely it would be safer for you.”

“We can’t.” Kageyama said. “Or, not for long anyway.” 

“Kenma is amazing!” Hinata was practically bouncing in his seat, an excitable light in his eyes that he seemed to get whenever he talked about Kenma. “He’s working on a revolutionary movement! He’s trying to garner support, to abolish the law so that we can come back to the kingdom and be together!”

“It’s coming along slowly.” Kageyama sighed. “But it’s coming and they're both stubborn idiots. They won't give up if there’s hope.”

It still didn't add up to Akaashi though. They were only a few hours' journey from the kingdom. Even if they wanted to stay in the area this would be too far. “Surely you could go out further though while still being near the kingdom. You seem to be camped awful close for someone on the run.”

“Well that's because we’re heading back to the kingdom!”

If Akaashi had a drink he would have spit it out. “Your _what?_ But you’ll be arrested!”

“Only if we’re caught.” Kageyama said simply, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

“But why would you risk it?”

Hinata got that lovestruck look in his eyes again, and he smiled dopey. “Kenma’s birthday is soon. I’m going to sneak into his estate and give him a gift.”

“I tried to talk him out of it already- it won’t work.” Kageyama warned, but he didn’t look particularly bothered. Akaashi wondered if it was because he wasn’t worried or if it was because he was resigned to his fate. 

“Hey maybe you can come with us!” Hinata suddenly shouted. “I mean, if you're not doing anything. But criminals got to stick together!”

It was a stupid idea. That’s the thought Akaashi’s brain supplied him with immediately. He was supposed to be staying away from the kingdom, supposed to be finding his friends. Nowhere was more dangerous for him than the very place Hinata and Kageyama were planning to break into. 

But there was something about Hinata and Kageyama that was familiar to him. Something that made him think of home, of happiness, of safety. They were bright and fun, with just as much snark as energy. It reminded him of his own friends, and most of all it reminded him of Bokuto. 

Akaashi was definitely missing them all more than a little. He wasn’t much one for making friends, but he latched onto the ones he had with a vice grip. In their absence he was looking for something to fill the void, he supposed. 

And loneliness was a powerful thing. 

“Okay. I'll go to the kingdom with you.”

Hinata cheered, looking overjoyed, while Kageyama only shrugged. “Welcome to the team.” 

It wasn’t all bad. He could swing by their makeshift hideout in the kingdom while they were there. This could benefit Akaashi’s search for his friends, while also getting some travel companions along the way. 

But the logical part of Akaashi’s brain, the part that hadn’t been taken over by sentiments still knew this was a terrible awful idea. 

Akaashi promptly told that part to shut up. He had made his decision. 

“Get a good sleep, Akaashi-san.” Hinata said, hopping off the log to stretch his arms over his head. “We leave in the morning!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm writing chapter 13 this week and we're at like 55k so far so um yeah buckle up cuz I get ahead of myself
> 
> This chapter was really fun to write lol I have big plans for these idiots *laughs evilly*
> 
> Today's outline expert issss:
> 
> And Akaashi is thinking about it and on one hand he knows it is very risky but then he thinks how its exactly the kind of thing Bo would do **(Akaashi your gay is showing)**
> 
> Up next week: Tsukki talks trash and no one is surprised, Tadashi is a beautiful child who must be protected at all costs, and I get ahead of myself and give Oikawa backstory


	6. The Grand King

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ushijima was a genius, and Oikawa hated him for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentines day everybody <3

When night fell Tsukki and Tadashi made a makeshift camp and tried to get as much sleep as they could. This wasn’t the first time Tsukki had to rough it in the middle of the woods, so he slept okay. But he had a feeling Tadashi had no such experience.

When they left the tower Tadashi spent several minutes just sitting in the grass, marveling at it like it was the most outstanding thing in the world. When Tsukki prompted him to get up, Tadashi took towards exploring the valley, and exclaiming at every bug and bird he encountered. It was like he had never been _outside_ before. 

While Tsukki tried to fall asleep Tadashi was still up, quietly holding a collection of rocks and pebbles in his hands like they were the most interesting things in the universe. The birds from earlier had continued to keep them company the whole time as well, not once flying off. They must have been pets of some kind, though Tsukki thought they were eerily intelligent. 

But Tsukki couldn’t spare much energy to wonder about them. He needed to find his friends, and the sooner he did it the better. Which meant when morning came it was time to make the pitstop he made Tadashi agree to.

“So where are we going?” Tadashi asked, trailing behind Tsukki as he led them through the woods. His fascination over the most trivial of things had quelled slightly from yesterday, but he would still stop at random places to admire a bush or tree for no reason.

“We’re stopping at this pub I know.” Tsukki’s gaze wandered to the side and he scowled when he was met with a wanted poster nailed into the tree. It was fresh, not worn by weather and time, and it had his friend’s faces on it. Word was being spread about their crime. They had to tread carefully. “Information always makes its way to those places first. If my friends have been around then someone there will know about it.”

It was a double-edged sword. Information always came to pubs first, and that included the bounty postings that put Tsukki’s head on a spike. If fresh wanted posters were out in the woods they would most certainly be in the pub. But Tsukki didn’t have much of a choice. He would keep his head down, and get in and out.

But Tadashi was ever so oblivious to just how much Tsukki was risking for his pipe dream. Tadashi was damn lucky he had the necklace as leverage- if not then Tsukki would have just left him abandoned in the middle of the woods. 

“Okay then! That sounds fun.”

At least he didn’t try to prevent Tsukki from completing his own goals. Tsukki could hand him that, at least. 

They walked in silence for a long while, which Tsukki was content to keep. Tadashi didn’t seem to share the same sentiment. 

“So tell me Tsukki.” He started, gaze still shifting across the forest like it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen. “What are your friends like?”

“My friends? Why would you want to know that?”

Tadashi shrugged. “Just curious I guess. They must be something for you to go to all this trouble to find them.”

Tsukki found himself taken aback. He didn’t think it was that much trouble. He was just risking life and limb to go to a pub to search around. Well… maybe it was a lot of trouble. But when he really thought about it, he didn’t mind the danger if it meant he could get a lead. It was just what you did for your friends. For your family. And those three had always been more of a family to him than his biological family ever had. 

“It’s just what you do for friends.”

Tadashi smiled softly. “That sounds nice. To have people who would do things like that for you.”

Tsukki shrugged. “They're annoying.” But he missed them. A lot. 

“Tell me about them!”

Oh, what to say? There were so many things, really. They had known each other for as long as Tsukki could remember so he felt like he knew them like the back of his hand.

“Well… Kuroo is very sharp-witted. If you need someone to talk you out of a bad spot he’s your guy. Very convincing and,” Tsukki scowled. “I’ve never won an argument with him. He’s also a nerd. Not even a classy one like Akaashi. Just a nerd.”

“Being a nerd can’t be that bad if he wins arguments all the time.” Tadashi hummed. “Maybe I should be a nerd. Convince father to let me out every once in a while.”

There was something there, Tsukki was sure, but he wasn’t sure if he should pry. Best to keep the conversation going, he figured, and ask later when he got a chance. 

“Akaashi is also very smart but it’s like… in an elegant way. If that makes sense. Not an in your face way. But he’s better at book smarts than devious, people smarts, like Kuroo.” Tsukki explained. “He’s dating Bokuto. When they got together me and Kuroo tried dating too. That was really weird. We didn’t make it past a week.”

Tadashi laughed, and all at once Tsukki realized just how much fun he was having chatting about his friends. Maybe he missed them more than he thought. But they had only been separated for a day. It was a bit pathetic, really.

“And then there’s Bokuto. He’s probably the strongest one out of us. He gets these mood swings sometimes, but he’s very emotionally intelligent. That’s what Akaashi says anyway. If someone’s feeling upset he’s great at helping them through it.”

Tsukki didn’t remember smiling but his lips were upturned, stretching across his face. He had to pause a moment to force them back into their usual line. Good thing Tadashi was walking behind him.

“Your friends sound fun.” Tadashi said, and Tsukki only nodded mutely. 

Tsukki glanced around and was surprised to see that the trees had started to clear up and the sparse dirt path they had been following thickened into pebbles and stones that crunched under their feet. They had arrived in front of a clearing in the time they had been talking. A sturdy wood building stood proudly in the clearing, surrounded by plants that were well-trimmed and tended to. They were here.

The Grand King was the only pub in the middle of the woods, and Tsukki knew from experience it acted as a sort of neutral ground for unsavory folks like himself. It was usually occupied by less than stellar characters, who would either try and turn you in for your bounty or let you go in the name of good faith depending on the day. It wasn’t safe, but it was the information hub he had the best chance in. 

“Here we are.” Tsukki said, hefting the door open and gesturing for Tadashi to go inside. 

The moment the door opened the sounds from inside the bar leaked out. It was what one would usually expect from a pub, the jostling, the shouting, the chatter that drowned out all other noise. 

Tadashi stepped inside meekly, seeming somewhat hesitant. His shoulders hunched forward like he was trying to curl in on himself, and his eyes flitted about the pub anxiously, like he was awaiting something to leap from the shadows at him. His birds settled on his shoulders, rubbing against his cheeks, but they didn’t seem to be doing much in the way of comfort. 

“You don’t get out much, do you?” 

Tadashi jumped slightly when Tsukki spoke up, glancing up to peer at him with a slight grimace. “Ah... no, can’t say I do.”

Tadashi straightened up and walked further into the pub, but Tsukki could tell he was still anxiously watching the thugs around them with a watchful eye. He was nervous and tense, and the part of Tsukki that couldn’t help but try and further his goals at any cost latched onto it. Maybe, just maybe he could scare Tadashi into going home and giving back the necklace. 

“I wouldn’t worry if I were you. This is a very friendly pub, and if you can’t handle this place well… the kingdom won’t be kind to you, is all I’m saying.”

Tadashi’s eyes widened, but Tsukki didn’t stick around to see his response. He pushed past him to lead the way in between all of the tables, heading for the counter in the back. Tadashi followed behind him but he seemed noticeably tenser. 

“Do you own this place?” Tsukki demanded, leaning against the counter. There was only one person tending to the bar, someone dressed in a crisply ironed vest with fluffy chestnut hair. 

He glanced up from the counter he was whipping down, smiling amicably when he saw Tsukki standing there. “That would be me! Oikawa Tooru, bartender extraordinaire at your service.” 

A muscular man with spiky hair scoffed at Oikawa’s declaration, but didn’t say anything.

“And this is Iwa-chan!”

The muscular man shot a glare in Oikawa’s direction. “ _Iwaizumi._ ”

“I’m looking for some people who may or may not have come through here.” Tsukki said, ignoring their banter. “There’s three of them.”

“Three friends you say?” Oikawa straightened up, looking very interested all of a sudden. “You know someone came by yesterday looking for his three friends too.” He tilted his head to the side, eyeing Tsukkishima like he was a puzzle he wanted to dissect. “Blond, tall, glasses… would you say you're an asshole?”

“Asshole…?” Tadashi whispered, looking quite taken aback. 

“What?!”

Oikawa grinned and shrugged. “Don’t shoot the messenger. This guy with crazy spiky black and white hair described one of his friends like that, and I must say you fit the bill.” 

Tsukki grimaced. There was only one person that could be. “Gold eyes, muscular, shorter than me?”

“That's the one.” The man sitting at the bar spoke up for the first time, turning in his chair slightly to watch Tsukki and Tadashi, who was hiding behind him ever so slightly. “Said his name was Bokuto. You know him?”

“Yeah I know him.” Tsukki mumbled under his breath. When he found Bokuto he would have to smack him upside the head for that helpful little description. “He’s the only one who came by?”

“Only one that we saw. Right Iwa-chan?” Oikawa leaned over, trying to nudge the man from across the counter, but he ducked out of the way. 

“Do you know where he went?”

Oikawa was silent for a moment, staring at him with blank eyes before he simply shrugged, an apologetic smile dancing across his face. “No idea!” 

“Sounded like he was going searching but where he didn’t say.” Iwaizumi said. 

“Well isn’t that lovely.” Tsukki grumbled. “The airheaded idiot didn’t even think to leave a message.”

“What are you going to do Tsukki?” Tadashi asked, leaning on the counter and looking at least somewhat more comfortable. 

Tsukki sighed, letting his eyes drift to the ceiling while he pondered it over. “To the kingdom I guess. You need to see your lights, and there’s the chance he went to our house. If not him then maybe the others.”

“Do you want to leave a message?” Oikawa snapped Tsukki out of his thoughts. “In case any of your pals wander by?”

“Tell them that I’m headed to the kingdom, and I’ll be around the house for a while. And tell them that…” Tsukki suddenly felt hyper-aware of Tadashi’s presence next to him, waiting for him to hurry up so they could get on the road. “Tell them I’m taking a detour on the way there.”

Oikawa nodded sagely, turning to his companion. “You got that memorized Iwa-chan?”

Iwaizumi furrowed his brows in anger Tsukki could tell wasn’t genuine. “Memorize your own damn message Shittykawa.”

“Ouch! The betrayal! Why would I ever memorize something when you’ll do it for me?”

“I ain’t doing shit!”

“C’mon Tadashi let’s go.” Tsukki turned away from the counter, beginning to make his way back towards the entrance. The information-gathering had gone both well and awfully. On one hand, Tsukki hadn’t _really_ expected to find out his friends had been by and he was glad to be proven wrong. But on the other hand, the information they did get was completely useless since they didn’t know where Bokuto was going. 

But Tsukki had already made his decision on his course of action. He would take Tadashi to see his lights, get the necklace he rightfully stole, and be on his way. 

“Hey, you look familiar.” 

Tsukki stopped short to avoid running into the man who had stepped into his path. He had a dyed blond undercut, and scratches on his face that Tsukki had seen on many a thug before. He had a glint in his eye that could only mean trouble, and Tsukki was already in enough of _that._

“And you don’t. Have a nice day.” 

Tsukki tried to push back but the man shot out a hand to stop him, and Tadashi squeaked in surprise behind him. 

“Now hang on.” The exit was right behind the man, so he reached out and slammed the pub door closed. Tacked onto the back of the door was a piece of tan paper, with WANTED scrawled on the front in big bold letters. And below it was a picture of _him_. Tsukishima Kei, wanted dead or alive. “This is you, isn't it?”

Tsukki could practically feel his mouth go dry, and he found himself at a loss for a response. “...No.”

“Terushima, who is it you have there?” Another man came sprinting from somewhere within the pub, staring at Tsukki and blocking their exit. “Hey… isn't that the guy from the poster? The one with the huge bounty?”

As if they had been summoned everyone in the pubs shifted their gaze to him as they all came to the realization that yes indeed Tsukki was the one on the poster. Figures. The ruffians in these places were always motivated by things such as money. And Tsukki was no exception. Had the roles been reversed he wouldn't have hesitated to turn on a fellow bar patron for the sake of coin. 

But the roles were not reversed, and this simply wouldn’t do. Tsukki couldn’t let himself be captured, but there wasn’t much he could do against an entire pub. 

“Hey! It is him!”

Everyone started to call out, and Tadashi grabbed onto the back of his shirt, watching them wearily while his birds shrieked on his shoulders. “Tsukki what do we do?”

“Stay calm.” Tsukki spat, but it was proving to be a tough task even for him. Panic was rising up from his chest slowly but steadily, a tide he couldn’t resist. “It’ll be okay.”

“I’ll get a guard!” Terushima exclaimed, turning tail and bursting out the door. 

Tsukki cursed under his breath and lunged for the door, pulling Tadashi along with him, but it was slammed shut by Terushima’s friend before he could get there.

“You can’t leave!” He exclaimed, looking absolutely delighted at Tsukki’s worst nightmare. “I can really use that bounty money!”

“Now who said you're getting it?”

Tsukki was suddenly yanked away from the door, pushed behind a wall of thugs all screaming various messages all at once, so Tsukki could hardly tell what anyone was saying. Tadashi shouted when Tsukki was wrenched away, but he couldn’t tell what he was saying.

“I want the bounty money!” A completely different thug shouted, yanking Tsukki over by his arm. 

“You didn’t do anything to catch him!”

“Neither did you!”

Tsukki felt like a rag doll, getting tossed around with no regard for his safety. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t break away from the crowd that was turning into a brawl. All of the thugs were throwing firsts, grabbing at him as they attempted to secure their ticket to the bounty money hanging over his head. 

Things were getting dangerous as the thugs hurled insults along with their fists, the crowd only getting rowdier. Tsukki had no idea where Tadashi was, and he had to admit he was worried. He didn’t have a clue why, but seemed Tadashi to be wholly unfamiliar with the world, and the pub especially made him uneasy. How would he fare in the middle of a bar fight?

Somehow the thugs had gotten it in their heads to gang up on _him_ even though all he was trying to do was get out of the way of fire. With several of them holding Tsukki down amid the teeming mass of fighting and another pulling back his fist, Tsukki could do little more than shout profanities and struggle. 

Ah how badly things had gone indeed. There was no hope for him now, and Tsukki’s brain scrambled to make peace with that before he was out of time. 

“LET HIM GO!”

Tadashi’s voice was unmistakable, booming over the noise like a drum. It worked like magic, quitting the chaos as the thugs turned to look at him. He still stood by the door, his eyes wide in muted panic, but stronger than that was the anger that washed over his features. He glared at the crowd, and the birds on his shoulders glared with him. 

Tadashi opened and closed his mouth for a few seconds, grasping at words, before he settled on repeating, “Let him go.”

The thug that was about to punch Tsukki lowered his fist after a moment of consideration. “Why should I?” He asked. “What’s it to you?”

“I need him! He’s my guide.”

“Guide?”

Tadashi sucked in a breath, his hands balled into fists as he stared the crowd down. Tsukki had to admit he was impressed. Tadashi definitely hadn’t come off as the type who could hold his own against a crowd of angry ruffians, but here he was. 

“He’s taking me to see the floating lights. It’s my _dream._ The only thing I’ve wanted for years. I can’t stay cooped up, I have to see what’s out there.” Tadashi waved his hands around in the air, vaguely gesturing to the sky. “Haven't you ever had a dream before?”

The thugs were quiet for a moment, watching Tadashi before one of them spoke up. “I had a dream once.”

Tsukki was set down but the tightly packed crowd kept him from doing much more than standing there, watching as the thug who spoke climbed to the top of a table to address the crowd. 

“I’ve always had a dream of becoming a world-renowned pianist. But,” His gaze shifted down to his right hand, which was clad in a hook. “It’s not easy to be a pianist with a single hand.”

“But have you ever _tried_?” Tadashi asked, and the thug paused, blinking in confusion. 

“Well… no, I suppose I haven't. I just kind of… gave up.”

“That’s your problem! You have to _try_!” 

Tadashi seemed to be gaining courage by the second and he brushed past the crowd to join the thug with the hook on the table. “You all have dreams, don't you? And if you try you can make them come true, just like what I’m doing!”

“The kids right.” One of them spoke up. It took Tsukki a moment but he was able to pick him out of the crowd, staring up at Tadashi like he had just had a grand revelation. “ _My_ dream is to find love! But I’ve never honestly _tried_.” 

“You should try!” Tadashi encouraged him. Tsukki wondered if he had completely forgotten about their original problem, but he wasn’t getting pummeled now that Tadashi was distracting them, so for now Tsukki was happy. “You have a dream and you deserve to have that dream become reality! But you have to _try_!” 

The crowd cheered when Tadashi finished his pep talk, cheering and chanting like a personal hype mob. The bartender from before was even cheering along with them, looking extremely happy with this turn of events, and Iwa-chan was watching them all with dry amusement.

“You are precious! A beautiful soul!” Someone in the crowd shouted. 

“You should go after your dream!”

“YEAHHHHH!” 

The crowd was teeming with even more energy than it was when they were about to get into a fistfight. Tsukki supposed even thugs could have their hearts touched- apparently all it took was Tadashi. Tsukki was impressed. It was hard to reconcile the timid boy staring in awe at every tree and flower with the confidant one that had rallied a mob of thugs. 

Their screams of encouragement were interrupted by the pub door being slammed open. Terushima poked his head into the doorway, grinning from ear to ear. “I’ve got the guards! They're coming!” He paused when he saw them all huddled around Tadashi on the table, glancing around the room silently. “...What’s going on?”

“Teru! You idiot!” His friend from earlier smacked the back of his head lightly, pulling him in and slamming the door shut. 

“What? What happened?”

“We’ve started a revolution!” Oikawa had disappeared from the bar and worked himself to the front of the crowd at some point. “Tadashi here has a dream and he needs Tsukki to achieve it!” He reached back into the crowd and grabbed Tsukki’s arm, easily pulling him from the crowd despite his struggles. 

“Um,” Terushima looked between Oikawa, Tsukki, and Tadashi and back again. “I can’t say I understand, but whatever you say. The guards are coming though. Any second now.”

“C’mon Tadashi!” Tsukki called, reaching up to the table to help Tadashi jump off. “We have to go _now_.”

“You can’t go out front, you'll definitely be spotted.” Oikawa said.

“Then how are we going to escape?”

Oikawa smiled slyly, gesturing back to the counter. “We have a secret passage.” 

“A secret passage?” Tadashi whispered reverently, like it was the best thing he had ever heard. “That's so cool, why do you have that?”

“Maybe you’d rather not know.” Oikawa said simply, smirking at Iwaizumi. Iwaizumi threw a cup at him and Oikawa leaned out of the way easily, completely unbothered. “But it lets out at this old damn. It’s all dried up on the side it lets out to, so you can cross and get back into the woods.”

“Brilliant, let’s go!” Tsukki said, already tugging Tadashi back to the bar. “We don’t have time to waste.”

Oikawa hopped over the counter, gesturing Tsukki and Tadashi to follow. Behind the counter were levers hidden by the countertop. Oikawa tugged on one of them, and Tsukki watched in awe as the floor parted to allow a trap door to swing open. 

The tunnel it led to was dark, lit only by torches scattered in holders on the wall. 

“In you go!” Oikawa said cheerfully. “Once you get in, it's a straight trail to the dam.”

“Thank you Oikawa!” Tadashi said, pausing in the entrance while Tsukki wasted no time hopping in. “I mean it.” His birds chirped along, like they were also giving their thanks.

“No problem Freckles. It’s what I do. Besides not every day I see this rowdy lot get all excited about something that isn't money or fighting.”

“Are you coming?” Tsukki turned back to the entrance, plucking one of the torches from a holder. 

“Yes, yes.” Tadashi hopped into the tunnel, glancing back behind him as Oikawa pulled the lever and the passage started to slide shut. “Farewell!”

“Take care!”

There was no more time for pleasantries. The passage slid shut in a matter of seconds, cutting off the well wishes and farewells of the crowd Tadashi had won over in such a short amount of time. 

“Well then,” Tsukki finally spoke, cutting the silence of the dark passageway. “Let’s get going, shall we?”

Tadashi nodded, turning on his heel to follow Tsukki down the path. “Let’s go.”

* * *

The passage had barely finished closing when the pub door was so rudely slammed open. Oikawa fought the urge to glare as he spun around to watch the guards flowing into his bar like water. It was one thing to have his valued patrons do it, and an entirely other to have it done by the guards who only made his life harder. 

Oikawa didn’t particularly like the royal guard forces. Too many painful memories were associated with them. He wasn’t one to go for them for much, considering his bar was a haven for those on the other side of the law, even if those patrons themselves sometimes called the guards. 

Still, Oikawa had little patience for them. One in particular, and as Oikawa watched them pour in he saw that very guard in question leading the group. Of course. Just his luck. 

Ushijima strolled into The Grand King like he owned the place, glancing about with his usual high and mighty air. Oikawa despised it. Idly he wondered if Ushijima even remembered him, but Oikawa doubted it. Why would the captain of the guards remember the drop out with a busted knee and a cheap binder?

It’s not like they ever spoke, not even when it looked like Oikawa had a future as a guard. Not like they ever spoke when he injured his knee so badly he was forced to give up. Not like they ever spoke when Oikawa left the kingdom that was full of broken dreams to start a pub. 

Ushijima was a genius, and Oikawa hated him for it. 

“Where is the criminal?” Ushijima spoke bluntly, as straight to the point as ever. 

Oikawa leaned against the counter smiling pleasantly and tipping his head to the side. “Criminal?”

Ushijima did not visibly react. “Tsukishima Kei. We were told he was here. As a citizen of the kingdom it is your civic duty to aid in our search Oikawa.”

As much as Oikawa hated to admit it, Ushijima was anything but incompetent. If he got the slightest wind of the passage to Oikawa’s back then he would find it. Oikawa wouldn't let that happen. He had taken a liking to Tsukki and Tadashi. Oikawa admired how set Tadashi was on achieving his dreams, and Oikawa wanted to provide as much of a helping hand as he could. He didn’t want to see them captured, and if he could pull a fast one on Ushijima in the process then it was all the better. 

So he would stall for time. Give them long enough to get out of that passage. 

“I didn’t think you would remember me!” Oikawa said cheerfully. His tone didn’t match with how he felt at all, on edge and agitated. Iwaizumi had taken his spot at the bar again, watching them out of the corner of his eye. Oikawa had met Iwaizumi after opening up The Grand King, so Iwaizumi had only heard some of the stories of Oikawa’s life before moving to the woods. 

But they had known each other long enough to tell what the other wasn't saying aloud. Oikawa knew that Iwaizumi was aware there was more going on here than met the eye. Oikawa was on edge, but Iwaizumi was the only one who had a clue.

“I remember you from our training. You dropped out. Was the life of a guard not fitting for you?”

There were a million things Oikawa could say right then. 

_“No you idiot, I got injured trying to make up for my lack of talent._ ”

 _“You wouldn’t understand, everything comes easy to you._ ”

 _“I was forced to give up on my dream. Not all of us were gifted with an easy life._ ”

He says neither of them. “If I was a guard my hair would get messed up for sure.”

Ushijima says nothing at his declaration. Damn emotionless golem. 

“Regardless, where is the criminal?”

“There’s no criminal.” Oikawa repeated. “You're mistaken. Now you're bothering my customers.” Oikawa gestured out to the bar. Everyone was sitting down now, trying their best to act casual, whereas a few had left entirely. “Please leave my bar.”

“Not until we apprehend the criminal.”

“There is no criminal!” Iwaizumi glanced over when Oikawa raised his voice, and Oikawa took a breath, calming his nerves. “There is no criminal Ushiwaka. You're mistaken.”

Iwaizumi turned away again once Oikawa had gotten himself under better control, but he kept his ear toward them, ready to leap into action if something happened. He may have been gruff, but he was the damn best friend Oikawa could ask for. And maybe even a bit beyond that. 

“Nah, I think there’s a criminal.” One of the guards broke away from the group, coming up to lean on Ushijima like they weren't storing his bar. He had forgone the helmet the rest of the guards were wearing, so there was nothing blocking Oikawa’s view of the shock of red hair on his head. His eyes were wide and unsettling, like they could see through Oikawa’s very soul.

Oikawa didn’t allow himself to falter. “Oh?”

“Call it a hunch.” The redhead mused, walked forward to lean on the bar. “But I feel like you're hiding something.”

The guard was dangerously close to the levers. He was right on top of the counter, and if he leaned over he would find them. And Oikawa couldn’t do anything but watch as he did just that. 

“Well well, lookie here!” The redhead exclaimed, pulling the lever without even a second's hesitation. Oikawa felt his heart leap into his throat when he heard the passage swing open from the floor behind him. “My guess is that’s the escape route our criminal took!”

“Thank you Tendou.” Ushijima said blandly, hopping over the counter. Oikawa automatically backed up when Ushijima waved his men forward, already heading inside. “We will go through this passage to apprehend the criminal and be on our way.” Ushijima told him. “Thank you for your assistance Oikawa.”

The guards organized themselves quickly. One to go in pursuit of the Tadashi and Tsukki, and one to sweep the area and report back to the chain of command. Though there were more guards in his bar, Oikawa only had eyes for Ushijima and his friend headed into the passage. 

As it swung shut the last thing he saw was a shock of red hair and the ever stoic eyes of the person Oikawa hated the most. 

_Watch out you two._ Oikawa thought to himself grimly as Iwaizumi left his spot at the bar to stand next to him. _The most wretched humans on this planet are headed your way._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'know... the concept of 'shocking' someone is so weird y'all. I don't mean like to surprise em, I mean like when you actually shock em. you know how when you touch something staticy and then yer all charged up and you can feel it tingle on your skin? and then if you touch someone you can hear this lil _ZAP!_ noise and then you both jerk back and yer skin burns for a split second, and if its dark you can see the snap of the electricity for a sec? 
> 
> thats so fucking weird. we don't even _say_ anything about it. were just like 'oh, this is a totally normal thing' like nO! WE ARE WALKING AROUND LIKE LIVNG TAZERS! WE DONT EVEN M E N T I O N IT! WERE JUST LIKE 'OKAY GUESS THIS IS HAPPENING'
> 
> my point is static electricity is fucking ratchet
> 
> Anyway couldn't help slipping in a sneaky trans oiks tribute for [Honorable Pride](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26470333/chapters/64500436)
> 
> Today's expert from the outline isssss:
> 
> And oiks is like ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Up next week: Tsukki wins the world record for most confused in one day, Tadashi NO near death situations are absolutely NOT FUN, and the plants try their best to help but they're just unpaid interns so you really shouldn't expect much


	7. Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It felt like he was falling in love with being alive.

The silence was starting to unnerve Tadashi when Tsukki finally spoke up. “So,” His voice echoed down the passageway, bouncing off of rocks they couldn’t see in the pitch-black darkness. “I’ve been wondering for a while.”

“Hmm?”

Tsukki glanced behind him, peering at Tadashi through the dark, his face backlit by the torch. “That tower of yours. Have you ever left it? Like, before I came along.”

Tadashi’s gaze fell down, as he opted to study the stone beneath his feet rather than meet Tsukki’s gaze. “...No.” He finally answered. His voice was so quiet he could hardly hear it himself. “This is the first time I’ve ever left. Father never let me.”

Tadashi finally looked up to see Tsukki staring at him in disbelief. “Not once?”

“No.” Tadashi shook his head. “It’s just been me and the birds.” He gestured to the crows still perched on his shoulder. They had dozed off at some point, using his shoulder as a nest. He could understand the sentiment- it had been a long day, and he was feeling tired himself. 

“That sounds lonely.” Tsukki was facing ahead again, their footsteps and his voice echoing down the path. The fire of the torch in Tsukki’s hand crackled quietly. The passage didn’t have any plants in it, so Tadashi didn’t feel any sort of calling sensation plants usually gave him. He could always distantly feel the plants in his tower, but when he got on the ground it was like being invited into a party after only looking in from a window. It was overwhelming, and so much more _there_.

“It wasn’t that bad.” Tadashi said. “I had the birds and my Father. It’s familiar. It’s home. I don’t resent it.”

“Then why did you decide to leave? If you seem so satisfied with it?”

“The world is bigger than my tower. I want to see that world. Even if I have to go against my father’s wishes.” If his father ever found out about Tadashi’s little trip he wouldn’t be pleased at all, and the thought made a trickle of nerves churn in his gut. “My father always says the world is full of terrible awful people. But you,” Tsukki’s eyes were back on him now, watching him with muted interest. “You don’t seem terrible.”

Tsukki’s eyes widened slightly, but just as quickly he whipped his head around to stare straight ahead, so that Tadashi could only see the back of his head. “I don’t like people much but you're not the worst.” Tsukki finally said after a moment. “I guess.”

Tadashi couldn’t help the grin that started to split across his face. Suddenly he was very grateful for the darkness of the tunnel and Tsukki looking away. He was happier than he reasonably should be at Tsukki’s declaration. He hadn’t met that many people but the ones he had were proving to be quite nice, even if Tadashi had his doubts at first. 

It was nice. The first person he had gotten close to other than his father in… his whole life, really. Tsukki was his first _friend_. And boy if Tadashi didn’t relish the thought. 

“That must be high praise Mr. I-don’t-like-people-much.” Tadashi hummed happily. “How quickly I’ve gotten you to warm up to me!”

“Oh hush.” Tsukki muttered, but he sounded more embarrassed than upset. “I just said you weren’t bad. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“It’s a big deal to me.” Any further rebukes Tsukki was going to defend himself died on his tongue, and he glanced behind him once more to peer at Tadashi. Tadashi only smiled sheepishly, shrugging his shoulders while taking care not to disturb his sleeping friends. “Haven’t gotten to interact with other people. Just my father. It’s a first for me. So it’s a big deal.” Tadashi hesitated a moment before continuing. “I’ve never had a human friend before.”

Tsukki had stopped moving all together, watching Tadashi with those piercing golden eyes of his. He seemed contemplative, debating something in his head that Tadashi could only hope to decipher with just Tsukki’s controlled facial cues. The silence fell around them like a blanket once more, coating the tunnel like a blanket before Tsukki broke it.

“Well,” He turned away like he was embarrassed, continuing his walk once more. “You did a good job at making your first.”

Pure unbridled joy lit up Tadashi’s chest like the floating lights he so admired. He had his doubts when Tsukki climbed through the window, bearing the evidence of his illegal activities, but there was nothing to worry about, was there?

It wasn’t a criminal who climbed through Tadashi’s window. It was his friend. 

Tadashi was shaken out of his thoughts when the ground started to rumble. It was deafening, terrifying, and Tadashi and Tsukki both paused, whipping around to peer through the darkness down the path they came from. 

“...What’s that?” Tadashi asked hesitantly, backing up a few steps right next to Tsukki as the noise grew closer. “Tsukki what’s that?”

Voices mixed in with the rumbling now, dozens of them shouting over one another. Tsukki’s face seemed to pale when he heard it, immediately grabbing Tadashi’s arm and starting to sprint down the passage, abandoning the torch he held so he could run faster. “It must be guards.” He spoke in between breaths, letting go of Tadashi’s arm now that he was running on his own. “They found the tunnel, we’re out of time!”

Tadashi didn’t know much about what Tsukki’s crimes actually were, besides what he’d infrared for himself. If Tsukki was captured he wasn’t sure what would happen, but he did know it wouldn't be good, for him and Tsukki both. So he followed Tsukki through the darkness with his heart in his throat as they dashed for safety. 

The jostling woke the birds on Tadashi’s shoulder and then squawked in alarm when they awoke to see them running. 

Daichi pecked his cheek instantly until Tadashi found the breath to answer their unspoken question. “The guards found the tunnel, we have to go!”

“Tell your birds to keep it down!” Tsukki hissed, eyes still trained ahead on the path. Ahead of them the darkness thinned, as light bounced off of the rocks, lighting the path. The rocks split apart to reveal outside. The sky was bathed orange as the sun began to set but it was still far brighter than any of the torches had been, lighting their way as they picked up their pace.

Tsukki emerged into the open first, and Tadashi followed immediately faster. The rumbling behind them hadn’t gotten any more distant- if anything it was gaining on them. 

Tadashi’s panic was rising up his throat with a vengeance. He wasn’t even the one directly in danger- it was Tsukki who would really be in hot water if they were caught. Still, it didn’t bode well for him either. What would he do without a guide to take him to the floating lights? Back to his tower? Tadashi wasn’t even sure if he could find it on his own. They were deep in the woods, unfamiliar territory he had only dreamed of seeing. 

He couldn’t allow Tsukki to be captured. Not just because it would ruin Tadashi’s shot at his dream, but also because they were _friends_. Tadashi would be damned if he lost his first friend so soon after making it. 

All in all it didn’t help ease his panic. The more Tadashi thought about it the worse their situation became. 

Still he surveyed the land they had emerged into, mind working overtime to find an escape. They were high on a cliff of some kind, that overlooked a deep ravine. It was dried up, as Oikawa promised, and on the far side was a mighty dam. Overflowing from the rocks was teeming greenery, lush and alive. 

There was no visible escape that Tadashi could see, and if Tsukki’s mumbled curses were any indicator then he didn’t see one either. 

They were trapped. The rumbling behind them grew closer, the birds chirping more frantic, and Tadashi could practically feel his chance at achieving his dream slipping from in between his fingers. 

And in his desperation he did the one thing he had been fighting so hard to keep at bay. 

The plants had been calling to him ever since he stepped foot outside the tower, so much closer and powerful now that they were within arms reach. Tadashi had suspected if he wanted to he could reach out for the plants and sway them to his will as long as he was on the ground with him. He used to need seeds to grow things, needed soil and physical contact. 

But ever since he hit the ground he felt stronger, and he had made a conscious effort to keep his desire to reach out to the plants at bay. Who knew what he was capable of, now that he wasn’t cut off from the plants, hundreds of feet in the air?

He wondered just how confined that tower had really kept him. 

The plants responded to Tadashi’s wordless call immediately. They twisted in accordance to his panic and desperation, curling around to mimic his fear. The seeds in his pocket started to sprout and Tadashi hurriedly grabbed them out and tossed them away before they got too big. 

“What’s happening?” Tsukki demanded, staring at the plants that were growing over the rocks, curling towards them at an alarming speed. 

“I- I can’t control it, I didn’t mean to-” Tadashi cut himself off, swallowing around the lump in his throat. He called for the plants hoping to get a little assistance, maybe a path down, but he hadn’t expected a reaction of _this_ scale. Every plant was leaning towards them, over the cliff. Even the trees were bending around.

And now that Tadashi had gotten them started he didn’t think he could stop it. The plants had rallied together to come to his aid, and no matter how he urged them to cease they wouldn't listen. 

“We have to go!” Tadashi forced his legs to sprint, grabbing Tsukki’s hand and tugging him along. The situation was far from ideal, but Tadashi didn’t have a choice but to make the best of it. The guards would be on them any second. They couldn't dally. 

Tadashi grabbed a nearby vine that had sprouted from his seeds, which had fastened itself to a cliff. Wrapping it wound his arm he tugged Tsukki forward and wrapped his free arm around his torso best he could. 

“What are you-”

“Hang on!” Tadashi shouted, giving the birds a second to grip onto his shoulder. “We’re jumping into the ravine!”

“WHAT?” Tsukki practically screeched. “Are you crazy, is that vine really going to-”

But Tadashi had already leaped off the cliff edge, toppling them all to the ground as he prayed that his grip was strong enough to get them there. But Tadashi had spent his whole life climbing around the small space he called his home, and the vine was all too happy to work with him. 

They sped towards the ground at breakneck speed and Tadashi released the vine, letting them roll across the ground to kill their momentum. 

They landed in a pile of limbs and feathers, covered in dirt from the ravine, but they were alive. Tadashi sprung up, glancing to the cliff they jumped off of and found himself staring up at the guards they were fleeing from. 

They stared at each other for a long moment, a silent stare down. Two of them stood at the front, staring him down. One was built stockily, with blank eyes Tadashi could see even over the distance. The second had fiery red hair, and looked more amused than anything.

They unnerved Tadashi, but not as much as what he heard next. 

It wasn’t Tsukki getting off the ground and tugging him to his feet, demanding an explanation for the plants that had continued to grow and reach for them. In fact, Tsukki’s shouts for an explanation sounded far away, underwater. 

The only thing Tadashi could hear was the sickening _crack!_ coming from the dam. 

He trained his gaze on the dam like it was the only thing in existence. Dimly he noted that Tsukki had quieted, following his gaze. So he was seeing it too. The crack blooming across the damn as a particularly vicious vine punched through, getting bigger and bigger with every second. 

Water dripped through the newly opened crack and the force of it caused it to expand further, stretching across the wall like a broken spider web as the water stream grew larger and larger. 

He and Tsukki were in the ravine. If that dam broke, all of the water would rush right to where they were. 

“We have to run!” Tsukki shouted, and Tadashi nodded wordlessly. It was the best idea he had heard all day. 

They took off across the ravine, sprinting like their lives depended on it. Which they did. Tadashi didn’t want to take his chances, swept up in a tide of water crashing to the ground. 

Tadashi glanced behind him to see the guards crawling their way down the rocks, to chase them across the ravine. Tadashi wondered if they were oblivious to the danger spitting water above their heads, or if they were just really _really_ dedicated to their jobs. 

It didn’t matter in the end. Tadashi was too far away from them to see their faces when the dam above their heads finally cracked open under the pressure. 

Water spilled forth with a vengeance, crashing to the ground in a terrifying stream that made the previous spouts leaking from the crack look like nothing. Tadashi didn’t watch them get swept away. Instead, he faced forward and put all of his strength into his legs, sprinting away from the water as fast as he could. 

But they couldn’t outrun a tsunami. The wave of water spilling from the dam was gaming on them, and quickly. 

“We’re not going to make it!” Tadashi huffed out, as best he could. 

“We have to!” Was the only thing Tsukki said. He glanced behind them before picking up the pace, veering off to the right. Tadashi followed him, trusting Tsukki to know what he was doing. Tadashi tried to peer over his shoulder best he could, and saw what Tsukki was heading towards. A small opening in the wall, a cave they could hide in. 

For a moment Tadashi was confused. Why was Tsukki running for a cave when they would still be drowned by the torrent inside? But then he glanced behind him and his blood almost froze at what he saw. 

The wave was there, and it was gaining on them, terrifyingly close, but there was something else. A rock pillar that had been knocked loose by the water, crashing down directly towards them. 

If they stayed where they were they would be crushed. But maybe, just maybe, if they got to the cave it would seal it off from the water. Maybe they would be safe. 

So Tadashi redoubled his efforts, and together they sprinted to the cave, their only saving grace.

Tsukki got there first, sliding inside the cave and reaching out a hand to pull Tadashi the rest of the way in. Together they stumbled as deep into the cave as they could get. It was a small cave, not very big, though it's ceiling was high. 

That was as much as Tadashi got to see before the stone crashed behind them and the cave went dark. 

The ground shook with the impact, but Tsukki and Tadashi clung to each other and managed to stay upright. The birds squawked at the sudden light changed, but Tadashi could tell they were grateful for the cave as well. 

“Oh my god…” Tadashi gasped, leaning against the wall of the cave as he tried to catch his breath. “We did it Tsukki!”

Tsukki wasn’t in a much better state, gasping and heaving a few steps away. He managed to give Tadashi a thumbs up, but was otherwise silent. 

Tadashi slid to the ground. The dirt and stone were cold under his legs, but it was welcome after the mad dash they just took part in. Tadashi didn’t expect running for his life to be part of the package when he set out to see the floating lights, but he found he wasn’t that upset about it. 

He felt _alive_. More so than he ever had before. He wasn’t locked away in his tower, he was out in the sun, living, being. As much as he loved the quiet tranquility of his home, he couldn’t deny that this was exhilarating. 

It felt like he was falling in love with being alive. 

But the warmth blooming in his chest was almost immediately snuffed out when the ice-cold water hit his skin. 

Slowly, Tadashi glanced down to confirm what he already knew. Covering the cave floor was a sheen of water that definitely wasn't there before. And it was rising. 

“Tsukki!” Tadashi called. Tsukki snapped his head up, and Tadashi pointed to the entrance of the cave. The stone had done a good job of sealing the cave but it wasn't good enough. Water seeped from the corners, at the bottom of the stone, at the top, on the sides. The torrent had completely engulfed the cave, and the rock wasn’t enough to keep all of it out. The most it could do was slow the tide, but eventually enough would get in to drown them.

Tsukki said nothing for a long moment, staring at the rock in despair. The water level was rising faster and faster. It was already past his ankles when he shot to his feet.

“There has to be a way out.” Tsukki finally said. He grabbed his pocket knife and started to jab at the walls, looking for a weak spot in the stone that had quickly turned from their haven to their prison. 

Tadashi did his best to help, searching along the wall looking for loose rocks. The birds lent their help as well. They flitted about the ceiling, pecking at the stone. 

The water was up to their shoulders, and they hadn’t found anything. 

The plants wouldn’t answer when Tadashi called them. Whether it was because there wasn't any close enough, with them trapped in this cave, or if it was because he had exhausted himself he didn’t know. 

Tsukki hissed curses under his breath Tadashi dared not to repeat, jamming his pocket knife into the walls over and over. Tadashi pressed on the stones with as much strength as he could, but they refused to budge. 

The water rose over their heads, and they floated above it while despair washed over them. 

“Tsukki there’s nothing here.” Tadashi whispered, his heart sinking to his feet as he pushed against the ceiling with any strength he had left. The birds did their best to help, hovering atop the water as best they could. The water hadn’t stopped rising for even a moment, and it would be flush with the ceiling in no time. They were out of options. 

“There has to be something.” Tsukki sucked in as much air as he could hold before diving under the water. Tadashi couldn’t see him through the murky water- the stone may have been awful at blocking out water but it did wonders for light. 

Tsukki re-emerged a few seconds later. “It’s pitch black down there.” But as soon as the words were out Tsukki was grabbing at the stones again, desperately searching for a way out. 

Tadashi had to admire his drive to live, even if his was slowly falling prey to despair. 

Suddenly Tsukki jerked his hand back from the rock with a small gasp. Through the darkness Tadashi could just barely make out dark riviots of what he assumed was blood running down Tsukki’s hand. 

“Be careful!” He warned.

Tsukki didn’t listen. He flung his whole body against the rocks, but they still didn’t give. 

“Tsukki!” Tadashi yelled. His voice echoed across the cave, but Tsukki paid him no mind. “Tsukki, stop! You’re going to hurt yourself!”

Tadashi wrapped his arms around him from behind and yanked Tsukki away from the wall as best he could with them both floating in the water. 

“It’s over.” Tadashi mumbled quietly against the back of his neck. “There’s nothing left to try, don’t hurt yourself.”

“We’ll be dead anyway.” Tsukki said bitterly. “What does it matter?”

Tadashi only tugged him closer, clinging to Tsukki with a vice grip. “I don’t want to watch you hurt yourself.” He mumbled quietly. 

Tsukki didn’t say anything, but after a long moment he turned around, wrapping his arms around Tadashi too. “Then I won’t.” He finally said. His voice was barely more than a murmur but it sounded loud as an airhorn in the deathly silent cave. 

So this was it. This was their end. 

Tadashi let out a breath, letting himself relax into Tsukki’s embrace. He didn’t fancy the idea of dying, but he supposed this couldn't be the worst way to go. In the arms of your first human friend, the birds you called your companions tucked onto your shoulders.

“Hey.” Tsukki’s voice surprised Tadashi. He had expected them to drown in silence. 

“Hmm?”

“Since we’re going to die, want to hear my secret?”

“Secret?” Curiosity bloomed in his chest, nagging at him incessantly with the desire to know. It was a welcome change from the dull, cold acceptance he had dawned. “I’m all ears.”

Tadashi’s head was practically tucked into Tsukki’s neck, so he couldn’t see any of Tsukki’s face through the dark. But when he spoke he could feel his vocal cords shift ever so slightly against the top of his head. 

“I’m an orphan.” He began. “But not because my parents abandoned me or anything. Not exactly. They used to be guards.”

“Royal guards?”

“Yes. They were very high ranked.”

“Were.” Tadashi’s curiosity was quickly twisting into confusion. “What happened to them?”

“About sixteen years ago the prince of Karasuno was kidnapped just a few days after he was born. My parents, as high ranking guards, were blamed for the prince's disappearance.” Tsukki said nothing for a moment, and Tadashi stayed silent until he continued. “The king banished them for their negligence. They left the kingdom, and me at an orphanage.” 

But something about Tsukki’s tone told Tadashi he wasn’t finished. When Tadashi didn’t say anything, Tsukki continued. 

“I have an older brother who was already training to be a guard. He was left behind to continue training. But he left me a letter. He promised he’d come for me. That he’d find where I was. It’s been sixteen years.” Tsukki’s voice was barely more than a whisper now. “And he never came.”

It was the most emotion in his voice Tadashi had ever heard. More than when he was talking about his friends, or the necklace he was so desperate to get. Tsukki sounded really upset. And for some reason it tugged at Tadashi’s heartstrings more than it reasonably should.

He really couldn’t sympathize. He had never been abandoned by anyone. It had only been his father, and he remained a constant in Tadashi’s life, always. The thought only stroked the guilt that had been continuously curdling in Tadashi’s gut. Tsukki was here, so hurt by his brother’s lies, and Tadashi was abandoning his father, thinking nothing of how it would affect him. 

And for what? A dream? Not that it mattered now. They would be dead in a matter of minutes.

The feeling of wonder and the urge to _know_ that compelled him to go on this adventure felt foreign and strange. A sensation he had never experienced, nor could imagine what it might have been like. 

“Is that why?” Tadashi asked. The water had risen up, and it brought them with it, floating precariously on the water. The top of Tadashi’s head brushed the top of the cave. When the cave was dry it was well over twice his height. Any moment now. “Why you became a thief?”

“Yeah. I was tired of waiting for someone who wouldn’t come, and my friends wanted to get out there and find a better life. The rest is history.”

Tadashi nodded mutely. The cold water chilled him down to his core and he shivered against Tsukki. But it still didn’t distract from the regret churning under his skin. His selfishness got them into this mess. He would die in this cave and he would take Tsukki with him. And his father would be left with an empty tower and no idea where he went. 

“Do you want to know my secret?” Tadashi asked. If he was going to die, he wanted to at least share his greatest secret with a friend. The idea was nice. To be able to talk to someone, to tell them things you couldn't tell anyone else. 

Maybe it was selfish, but Tadashi wanted to spend his last moments doing the things he couldn’t before. 

“Go for it.”

And even though Tadashi wanted nothing more than to blurt out the secret he had kept all his life, he still hesitated. Because this was the secret that landed him in that tower in the first place, the secret that his father worried could ruin his life. 

But Tsukki was his friend. He wasn’t just some bandit, or a ruthless thug his father fled from. He was a friend, and Tadashi trusted him. 

“I can grow plants out of nothing in seconds. And I have magic hair that glows when I sing.”

For a moment Tsukki said nothing, and Tadashi worried he made a mistake. Not that it would matter. They were dead men. 

“You...what?”

Tadashi shifted to peer up at Tsukki. He was looking at him in disbelief, mouth agape. 

“I have magic hair.” Tadashi repeated slowly. “It glows when I sing. And I- WAIT.”

Tadashi pushed Tsukki away, and they separated in a flurry of splashes. How was he so stupid? How did he not see it?

“What? What is it?” Tsukki demanded.

“I have magic hair that glows when I sing!” Tadashi immediately sucked in a breath, singing the lyrics to the song he had sung countless times before. 

_“Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine.”_

He had to tilt his head up to get the rest of the song out, the water finally overtaking the small pocket of air that was their refuge. But it was enough. When the water covered him and Tadashi opened his eyes, his hair was glowing, lighting up the murky water a comforting green. 

Tsukki was staring at his hair in shock, but Tadashi didn’t spare him anytime. 

Plucking his birds from where they were helplessly flailing in the water, Tadashi tucked them under his arm and gestured for Tsukki to follow him. 

Something midway up the cave was calling to him, an itch he couldn’t ignore. He swam his way over, as quickly as he could. The air he had trapped in his lungs would only last him so long. 

When he reached the wall he immediately saw what drew his attention. A small sprout of a plant he didn’t recognize, but it definitely wasn't there before. It sprouted from a faint, almost indistinguishable crack in the stone. Stone, that on closer inspection, was actually bricks piled on top of each other tightly. 

Tadashi tugged at the rocks, and they wobbled and gave under his grip. It didn’t take Tsukki long to catch on. He swam over and loaned Tadashi his strength, and together they tugged the bricks apart.

When they gave water spewed froth from the newly opened hole like being sucked through a vacuum. Tadashi and Tsukki were pulled through with the current, out into the open air. The light was blinding, but Tadashi was only able to see it for a moment before he was crashing into another pool of water. 

He flung himself to the surface, holding the birds high into the air and letting them sputter and cough up water. 

They had landed in a pool of some sort, a stream perhaps. Behind them was a stone wall steadily gushing out water from the cave. Tadashi found that he didn’t care much for his surroundings though. Not when there was fresh open air all around him and a bank leading to the forest just a few paces away. 

Tadashi dragged himself on shore, collapsing into the dirt and setting the birds down as gently as he could. Tsukki flopped down next to him a few moments later, hacking up a lung. 

“We’re alive.” Tadashi mumbled, staring straight up at the sun. He couldn’t believe it. He felt like he cheated death and he _had_ and by the gods was the feeling addicting. “We’re alive!”

“You have magic hair.” Tsukki sounded far less astounded at their escape. Instead, he seemed to be in a sort of unbelieving stupor. “It glows. You have- it’s magic? It glows? And- and the plants, that thing in the ravine-”

“Tsukki we’re alive!” Tadashi flung himself upright, shaking Tsukki vigorously with a strength he thought he had spent. “We escaped, it's not the end for us!”

Meanwhile Tsukki was just staring up at him like he had seen a ghost. “It glows!” He repeated again. On his shoulder, Suga chirped and shook his head disapprovingly. “It- why aren’t your birds surprised?”

Tadashi was too high on the joy of living to do much more than laugh. How could he have ever forgotten the liquid happiness that came with this pure elation? How could he think it wasn't worth it, when he got to experience these things?

Tadashi never thought he’d be one for near-death experiences, but they weren’t that bad when you had a friend with you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hehe cuddling when you think your about to die :)
> 
> The expert from this chapter's outline issssss:
> 
> And then yams is like i have magic hair that glows and i can grow plants
> 
> And tsukki is like bitch wHAT
> 
> Up next week: I write what is quite possibly my favorite scene through the magic of chess, Akaashi Hinata and Kageyama should totally be in an Assassins Creed game, and Akaashi for fucks sake stop over thinking everything for oNCE-


	8. Sacrifice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It felt like he was always making the wrong decision. Doing the opposite of what he should.

Hinata had insisted they leave their camp behind in the early hours of the morning to start for the kingdom. Akaashi didn’t find it in himself to complain about the early wakeup call. In fact, the sooner they got into the kingdom the better- that way he had more chance of intercepting any friends who may have wandered into the kingdom as well. 

Kageyama and Hinata filled their journey with their banter. It was actually quite nice- it filled the silence in the familiar way Akaashi was used to. In his own friend group, there was rarely silence. There was always someone going on about something or another, and the silence of the woods reminded him how much he missed the chatter. Yes, Kageyama and Hinata were good travel companions. 

It only took them about half a day to get to the outskirts of the kingdom. Akaashi’s estimation of where he was proved correct- he found himself recognizing all the clearings they passed. Someone really ought to give him a pat on the back. 

When they arrived at the kingdom Kageyama hauled them behind a huge bush growing near the entrance of the grand bridge that led to the kingdom surrounded by water. 

“We have to wait till night and go in under the cover of darkness.” He had said, grabbing Hinata’s shirt collar and yanking him down when he tried to stand up. “What we’re doing is risky enough. Let’s be as cautious as we can.”

And that was how Akaashi found himself sitting in a bush for several hours while Hinata and Kageyama played endless rounds of rock paper scissors. It was terribly boring, waiting for nightfall, but it was a good opportunity to think for a while. 

He reviewed the plan in his head countless times for one. Once night fell they would use the ledges on the outside of the bridge to sneak their way over. Then they would make their way to Kenma’s estate.

“It’s a really big house! Like a mansion.” Hinata had told him. “It’s got a lot of guards around it too, but they're easy enough to sneak past. We used to do it all the time.”

“But didn’t you get caught?” Akaashi asked incredulously. “Surely it wouldn’t be safe to waltz right in.”

“He didn’t get caught sneaking into Kenma’s room.” Kageyama piped up. He had been quiet for some time now, claiming he was ‘trying to picture a universe where Hinata shut up for once.’ Hinata had punched him for that. 

“What happened?” Akaashi would be lying if he said he wasn’t curious. Their whole situation was certainly an odd one. He had never met anyone of common blood who had so much as befriended a noble. The higher class tended to keep to themselves, so for Hinata to have not only gotten close to one, but also risked life and limb to be in a relationship with one was astounding. 

And if he was going to all this trouble to see Kenma again, then there was no way it was a simple casual thing. It was love. Hinata was risking his life for love, and it hit Akaashi a little too close to home. 

Would he ever do that? Give up everything, lay his life on the line for love? 

For the right person, his heart whispered _yes._ And it also knew just who that person is.

Hinata sighed and shifted his position for what had to be the hundredth time. Akaashi wasn’t too sure what he was trying to accomplish. You could only get so comfortable sitting on the dirt inside of a giant bush. 

“We went to see the lantern festival.” Hinata whispered, leaning in close so Akaashi could hear him. It was of utmost importance they kept quiet- it would be disastrous if they were heard by any of the guards who periodically walked by, on the lookout for trouble. “Last year. But I guess we didn’t do as good of a job staying discreet as we should have, and the guards took notice. They recognized Kenma, and they didn’t recognize me, which was enough for them.” He heaved a sigh, his shoulders sinking down low. “And the rest is history. I’m sure you can figure it out, Akaashi-san.”

So it was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Akaashi couldn’t help but feel bad for Hinata. He was being punished for daring to love another person. It certainly wasn’t the fairest thing in the world, and he knew there were others in the kingdom sharing that viewpoint. 

Akaashi would see them in the streets sometimes, standing on soapboxes to rally support for their cause and get rid of the law. They were making an admirable effort, he had to admit, but for the most part, they don't seem to be getting anywhere. Most of the common people simply didn’t care, largely uninterested in interacting in such a way with the higher class. And the nobles themselves didn’t care enough to bother opening the doors into the elite class.

He himself had never cared. It didn’t affect him whatsoever, so he was content with merely observing. But seeing how it made people like Hinata and Kageyama suffer, Akaashi suddenly wished he wasn’t so passive, like the majority of the kingdom. 

Bokuto always told him he was a closeted romantic, and maybe that would explain the ache in his heart when he saw the barely hidden suffering they were both dealing with. Some part of him wanted nothing more than to kick and scream and claw and _fight_ against the old rules that kept his newfound companions in hiding, paying for the sin of being human. 

It was kind of scary. 

He came here intending to split off when the deed was done to pursue his own goals. Find his friends and skip town to pursue the riches the necklace could offer them. But hearing the story of one unfortunate pair and he was ready to lead the protests himself if only Hinata and Kageyama and Kenma could get a happy ending.

Find his friends, his _family_ or help Hinata and Kageyama find theirs. What should have been an easy choice suddenly felt impossible to make the longer he spun the circumstances around in his head. 

Akaashi really needed to consider not overthinking every single thing. It was going to give him killer headaches one day.

Besides running the poorly cobbled together break-in plan in his head and pondering over the injustices that were causing Hinata and Kageyama so much strife Akaashi didn’t do much while he sat ideally in the bush. Played sticks with Hinata. Traded stories on law-breaking escapades with Kageyama. But the entire time the lurking shadow of unwelcome turmoil was weighing in on the back of his mind. 

Akaashi needed to sort himself out, and he needed to do it fast. As soon as Hinata’s errand was done Akaashi was leaving for his hideout. He wasn’t the kind of person that could abandon everything to help someone else. He wasn’t like Bokuto, or Hinata, wasn’t the kind of person who could care so easily, sacrifice so easily. 

He was the kind of person who stuck to what they knew. That’s what landed him here in the first place- he was chasing the comfort and familiarity he lost when their group got split up. He was the kind of person who looked out for himself and those closest to him first, even if it meant forsaking strangers. 

It was just the way he was. His character wasn’t going to completely change just because he was battling a bout of loneliness. 

“Is it time?” Hinata whispered, peering in between the leaves up at the sky. “It’s pretty dark. Around nine, I would say? It will only get darker from here.”

“Best to go now then.” Kageyama crawled to the edge of the bush, glancing around before leaving. “Coasts clear, go go go!”

Akaashi was well familiar with how perilous operations like this could be, so he didn’t waste any time. The three of them sprinted along the bank, making for the bridge. Akaashi couldn’t see any guards around, but whether that was because they were on the other side of the bridge for patrol or because of the darkness he didn’t know. 

They moved swiftly to the bridge. Instead of walking across the smoothly paved pathway it provided into the kingdom Kageyama led them to the outside of the bridge. The wall of the bridge was high enough up, and the ledge the wall was built upon far enough down that they could shimmy their way across the ledge without being seen by people on top of the bridge. It was a handy way to sneak into the kingdom that Akaashi had never thought of. The ledge was small enough that if you just looked at it you would think it wouldn’t be big enough to walk across, and the shadow of the wall that made the bridge hid it most hours of the day.

Akaashi would have to remember it for future reference. 

They made it through the kingdom quickly. Akaashi was pleasantly surprised to find that his companions were quite familiar with the route they were taking, expertly ducking into the shadows and into alleyways to keep them as concealed as possible. He wasn’t sure they would be so adept at this, considering they had fled for the woods immediately after becoming criminals, but in hindsight it did make sense. Of course they would know the route to the place they used to sneak into so often.

They lead Akaashi deep into the kingdom, to the posh streets that lead to the palace in the center. It was a bit odd for him. If they crossed a few blocks to the right they could be at the castle wall that Akaashi and his friends scaled to break into the throne room. When they left to commence their heist he definitely didn’t think he would be back in the kingdom so soon. 

But instead of following the carefully cobbled roads to the palace Hinata and Kageyama split off down a slightly smaller but no less grand pathway. The stalls and buildings that lined the kingdom streets faded away as they crept down it, giving way to fancy towering gates and luscious greenery. 

This was the part of the kingdom where the nobles lived. Their mansions and estates were massive, casting an imposing figure over the rest of the kingdom, dwarfed only by the royal palace itself. 

“Here we are.” Hinata stopped short in front of one of the gates, hidden in the shadows. “This is where Kenma’s family lives.” 

The house was large and grand, and Akaashi couldn’t help but marvel. How could one daily need all this space? The grounds were sprawling and rich with plants, the house was grand and glistening and the black barred gates rose high into the air as if declaring the standing of the family within. 

Akaashi didn’t make it a habit to go prancing around the noble’s neighborhood, but maybe he should. Everything in those estates must have cost a fortune, and if he managed to swipe something he’d be rich. 

Maybe he was a bit of a kleptomaniac.

“How do we get in?”

Kageyama ran his hands along the gate for a moment before he tugged on one of the bars more forcefully. “Here we go.” The bar under his hand gave out and he nudged it aside to create an opening just big enough for them to slip in. “This bar has been loose for ages. It’s a good thing no one noticed it while we were gone.”

“Or we’d be screwed!” Hinata said cheerfully, and far too loudly for the circumstances. “Anyway, in we go!” He whispered when Kageyama glared at him. 

Akaashi glanced wearily around the grounds while Kageyama put the bar back in place around them. “I don’t see any guards.” 

“This part of the grounds is out of the patrol patterns. Once we get up to the house it's a different story though.” Kageyama pointed to the house in question, several hundred feet away. “But Kenma’s room is on the outside of the house. We’ll go around the outside edge.”

“There’s a lot of luck involved in this plan.” Hinata muttered. “We’re just hoping that nothing changed in a year.”

“And you didn’t tell me how risky your plan was before now because?”

Hinata only grinned sheepishly. “Sorry Akaashi-san. If it's any consultation, everything has worked so far!”

Akaashi only sighed. Somehow, he wasn’t surprised. Yes indeed, Hinata reminded him far too much of a certain someone. 

They crept along the outside edge of the fence, the darkness shrouding them like a blanket. When they had looped around all the way to the back of the mansion Hinata gestured to one of the many windows on the backside. 

“Kenma’s room is on the right side. The one kinda near the middle.” He said. “But it’s a fake window, it doesn't open. We need to get in the one next to it to get into the hallway and go through the door.”

“And that’s safe?” It sounded dreadfully risky to Akaashi.

“As long as you know what you're doing it is.” Kageyama shrugged. “And we know what we’re doing. Hopefully. Just watch out for the tripwires.”

“Tripwires?” That was news to him.

“They’re near the path.” Hinata answered. “As long as you follow us you won’t activate them.”

Akaashi had to hand it to them, they did know the way to sneak into this estate like the back of their hand. He wondered how long it took them to master it. 

They crept towards the mansion, ducking in between the expertly trimmed bushes and flower beds to come up against the side of the house. There were three rows of windows extending upwards, and they were heading for the top. Luckily each window had a ledge they could climb on to reach the next. 

They moved swiftly. Adrenaline was coursing through Akaashi’s blood, heightening his senses and making him feel vaguely jittery. It was a familiar feeling but he usually experienced it in the company of his friends as they embarked on their latest escapade. It was odd to be doing the same with new companions. 

Hinata went first, and he pulled a small silver lockpick out of his pocket. He made quick work of the window and within seconds it popped open. He grinned triumphantly and hopped through. Kageyama followed, and when he was through Akaashi pulled himself up to the third floor, jumping through the window as silently as he could. 

The interior was as posh as he expected from the exterior. The carpet was lush and spotless, and Akaashi almost felt bad for all the dirt they were surely tracking in. The walls were polished ebony, and every few feet there was a small table with a fresh bouquet of flowers in them. Snapdragons, if he wasn’t mistaken. 

“Kenma’s room is down the hall!” Hinata whispered. He seemed practically giddy with excitement and Akaashi supposed he couldn’t be blamed. After a whole year he was finally going to see Kenma again. 

The end of the hallway led to another hallway, and Hinata and Kageyama turned the corner with no hesitation, Akaashi following just a few steps behind. At the end of the new hallway was a huge grand double door, but Akaashi barely spared it a glance. 

Instead what drew his attention was something standing in front of it. Or rather, _someone._

A guard. He stood in front of the door decked out in the telltale golden armor. When he saw the three of them he startled, his hand flying to the sword fastened at his side. Akaashi felt his heart jump into his throat. This was definitely _not_ good. 

There were a few options available to them, and Akaashi’s brain worked frantically to consider them all in the split second they had. 

Option A: they fight. It was three against one, but Akaashi only had a pocket knife and he doubted Hinata and Kageyama were much better off. The guard had a sword, armor, and training. Not to mention reinforcements were only a shout away.

It would be hard to incapacitate him. Akaashi had never possessed the strength needed to knock someone out. It would be easiest to just kill the guard, but did he really have what it took to do that?

He may have been a notorious criminal, but he had never killed anyone. 

Option B: They run. If they made a mad dash they might be able to get out of the estate before this guard called reinforcements and they arrived to his aid. But it would mean abandoning their quest, and making it that much harder for him to get to his hideout. 

Option C: Surrender. Undoubtedly the worst one. If they were arrested it was the death penalty for him and Hinata, and a life sentence for Kageyama. 

So option C was out but his mind fought over which of the remaining two to choose. Try his luck fighting? Start running and trust Kageyama and Hinata to follow? 

In the end it didn’t matter. 

The guard blinked when he saw them more clearly, his knee jerk reaction out of the way. And then his hand fell away from the sword. 

“It’s you two!” He breathed, voice laced with disbelief. 

Akaashi watched with wide eyes as Hinata and Kageyama strolled up, not worried in the least. 

“Long time no see!” Hinata greeted cheerfully. “We’ve decided to pop in for a visit!”

Akaashi had planted his feet firmly at the corner of the hallway, watching the scene unfold. Why were Hinata and Kageyama so unconcerned? Did they know this guard?

“-nd we brought a friend.” 

Akaashi was jerked out of his thoughts when he was Kageyama gesturing to him. “This is Akaashi. We met him in the woods, and asked him to tag along.”

Akaashi waved stiffly, forcing his feet to cooperate as he walked down the hallway. The guard nodded to him, completely unbothered by their presence in a place they were definitely not supposed to be. Wasn’t he a guard?

“Akaashi, this is Kenma’s guard.” Hinata explained. “He’s cool. He always helped us visit Kenma. I’m just glad you didn’t get fired or something.” Hinata turned back to address the guard. “I was worried after we got caught you might get transferred somewhere else for allowing Kenma to get out.”

“Oh nah.” The guard rubbed the back of his neck. “I had a clean track record up till then so I managed to get off with a slap on the wrist. But what about you two? I haven't heard from you in a year, I thought you skipped town.”

“We did.” Kageyama leaned against the wall and Akaashi was struck by the odd sense that he looked out of place. They all did really, all dark clothes and dirty faces against the pristine elegance of the estate. “Been living in the woods. Hinata wanted to bring Kenma an early birthday gift and check-in.”

The guard sighed. “As long as you're careful I guess. Don’t forget that you’re both still very wanted. Anyway,” He gestured to the door behind him. “I’m sure you're dying to see Kenma.”

“What's your name?” Akaashi finally spoke up. There were so many questions he wanted to ask- why was he so okay with Hinata and Kageyama strolling around? How did he meet Akaashi’s companions? But instead he went with the simplest one. He could always do some research into the strange guard later. 

“Hmm? Oh!” The guard paused from where he was turning around to grab the handle of the door. “I’m Akiteru. Nice to meet you!”

_Akiteru._

Akaashi recognized that name. 

All at once he was very grateful for his impenetrable poker face. 

_Akiteru._

A faint memory of a younger Tsukki popped into his mind. It was a late night when they were all still living in the orphanage they met at. Akaashi had found him clutching a well-worn note in the dead of night, and Tsukki had ended up telling him what landed him in the orphanage in the first place. 

They all knew Tsukki’s story, everyone in that group of theirs. About his parents, the king's orders, the empty promises of his absent older brother. 

They all knew just how long Tsukki waited in that orphanage for him. They all knew how long it took to convince Tsukki to leave the orphanage with them, find a better life for themselves. They all knew how heartbroken Tsukki was when he gave up on the only family he had left. 

And now that very same brother who caused Tsukki to suffer so was in front of him. 

Did Akiteru know about Tsukki? Did he know about his friends? Akaashi himself?

But he didn’t have time to ask any of the many questions swirling in his head. Akiteru cracked the door open and ushered them inside. Hinata sprung forward without hesitation, darting into the room. Kageyama followed close after and as if on autopilot, Akaashi followed. 

As much as he wanted to confront Akiteru, it wasn't the time. They were in a perilous situation right now, deep in enemy territory. It wouldn’t do if Akaashi went picking fights with one of their few allies, so he forced himself to put aside the anger simmering under his skin. 

Akiteru shut the door behind him as Akaashi entered the room. It was huge- far bigger than the entirety of the hideout he shared with three other people. It must have been a bedroom of some kind, because a large and grand bed was near one of the corners of the room. 

On the far wall was a grand window with a reading nook full of pillows in front of it. The window itself was covered with lace curtains, blocking the light from the many candles and chandeliers around the room from escaping. 

But Akaashi’s attention was drawn to the far right side of the room. It was dimmer there- the chandeliers clustered around the middle, so the only lighting came from several candles, giving it an almost dream-like glow. 

A plush couch of some sort took up most of the space, and a low table sat in front of it. And sitting on the floor in front of that low table was a person. 

He was hunched over a chessboard, and seemed to be picking up the pieces to move them back to their starting position. It was hard to see his features through the darkness, but he had chin-length hair that fell around his face, and he was wearing a bulky jacket. 

Akaashi didn’t have to wonder about his identity for long. 

“KENMA!” Hinata practically screamed. He launched himself across the room like a rocket. So this was the Kenma they were seeking. 

Kenma hadn’t taken notice of them when they first entered, but when Hinata spoke up his head shot up. He glanced about the room with wide eyes, before he finally found Hinata, mere steps away from him now. Hinata collapsed onto him, gripping him in a hug so tight Akaashi was worried for Kenma’s ribs. Hinata had hugged him earlier when they were sitting in the bush. It really hurt. Who knew what Hinata could accomplish if he had a running start. 

Kenma gasped for a moment, stiffening up like he wasn't sure what was happening. 

“Let him breathe dumbass!” Kageyama grabbed Hinata by the collar and lifted him off of Kenma. “You're going to suffocate him!”

Akaashi sat on the couch across from the trio. He was content to just sit and watch for now.

“What-” Kenma’s eyes were comically wide. “Hinata? Kageyama?”

“Hey there!” Hinata grinned so wide Akaashi was sure it hurt. Kageyama set him back on the ground and he dropped to the floor, sitting next to Kenma. “We came to visit!”

Kenma didn’t say anything. He looked between Hinata and Kageyama, mouth opening and closing like words were escaping him. Every once in a while he glanced in Akaashi’s direction, but seemed to be content ignoring him for now. 

“How did you- are you-” Kenma stopped short, sucking in a deep breath. “It’s been a _year_.”

“We’ve been in the woods.” Kageyama sat down at the table as well, tucking his feet under it. “Living as rogues. Not the easiest thing, but it kept us alive.”

His voice was softer, tinged with fondness, and Akaashi suddenly felt like he was intruding in a very personal moment. Because the trio in front of him were _friends_ and Akaashi was just some guy they met in the woods. 

His heart pinged with longing for his own friends. It had started doing that a lot.

Kenma shook his head, lips quirked up. Silently, he grabbed Hinata’s arm and tugged him over the few inches separating them and buried his head in Hinata’s shoulder. “I wasn’t sure you were okay.” His voice was muffled by the fabric of Hinata’s shirt. “Akiteru told me you escaped the guards, and left the kingdom but I didn’t know if you were _alright_. I was scared.”

When Kenma looked back up again to glare at Hinata and Kageyama his eyes were misty. “Why the hell did you come back? It’s still too dangerous!”

Hinata brightened up at that, rummaging in his pockets. “Your birthday is soon! I wanted to bring you a gift.” Akaashi didn’t know what the gift was himself- he never got around to asking- but whatever it was was small enough to be covered completely by Hinata’s hand. 

Hinata grabbed Kenma’s hand and turned it palm side up, dropping the gift into his palm. When he pulled his hand away Kenma brought the charm up to look at it closely. 

“It’s a bracelet.” He said quietly, picking it up to admire it in the candlelight. “A charm bracelet.”

“We collected the charms from traveling merchants.” Kageyama said while Kenma hooked the bracelet around his wrist. “Made a few.”

“I made this one!” Hinata pointed to a small orange charm. Akaashi couldn’t tell what it was over the distance but if it had to guess it was a cat of some kind. 

“Thank you guys.” Kenma smiled softly at the bracelet. “But… you didn’t steal any of them, right?”

“What?” Hinata exclaimed. “We may be rogues but we don’t _steal_.”

“That’s a lie.” 

“Kageyama that's your cue to back me up!”

Kenma shook his head, heaving a fond sigh. “I’m just glad you're okay. I was really worried.”

“Sorry about that.” Hinata was a lot more somber now, his voice quieted to the level one would think was acceptable for the kind of break-in mission they were on. “We’re being careful, I promise.”

“So tell me, who’s this with you?” Kenma turned to Akaashi and Akaashi straightened his posture. Though there was really no benefit in doing so he wanted to make a good impression on the cat-eyed man. 

“I’m Akaashi.” Kenma watched him, and if Akaashi didn’t know any better he would have said his eyes glowed through the dark. “Nice to meet you.”

“I recognize you.” Akaashi felt himself stiffen up, even if he knew there was no danger in being recognized here. Surely Kenma wouldn’t turn him in, not with Hinata and Kageyama here too. “Akaashi Keiji. Your one of the necklace thieves.”

“Yes I… suppose that describes me.”

“We met him in the woods.” Kageyama propped his head up against his hands, his elbows resting on the table. “Asked him to tag along.”

“He’s great at rock paper scissors!” Hinata chimed in. 

Kenma shrugged. “I’m Kozume Kenma. Just call me Kenma. Thank you for helping bring these two to visit. But,” He paused to glare at the pair again, “ _Don’t_ come back. Not while the law’s still in place.”

Hinata heaved a dramatic sigh and flopped backwards onto the floor. “But that could be _forever_.” He whined. “How is it going so far?”

Kenma averted his gaze, avoiding their eyes. “...Slowly.” He finally said. “We’re getting more support but it's hard. It feels like a two steps forward and one step back kind of thing.”

“How's what going?” Akaashi asked. 

Kenma’s attention had shifted back to the chessboard, and he didn’t look up from it as he moved the last few pieces into place. “Have you ever seen the rallies of people calling for the noble marriage clause to be abolished? They like to preach their cause in the markets and things.”

“I’ve seen them.” Quite often in fact- there was scarcely a day when Akaashi didn’t go to the market and see at least a few calling for action. And there was scarcely a day he didn’t walk right past them, unbothered. It made guilt churn in his gut now.

“I’m technically their leader.” Kenma drummed his fingers on the table absentmindedly. “In secret, of course. If my parents caught wind I was interfering they would make sure the group was dismantled in a heartbeat.”

“Stupid Kenma’s parents.” Hinata grumbled. “Overprotective conservative jerks.”

“Speaking of, how did they handle the news that you were seeing Hinata?” Kageyama asked. 

Kenma grimaced. “Not well. Had me under house arrest for months. I’m still not allowed to leave without supervision. Luckily that ends up being Akiteru most of the time, but it’s still annoying.”

“It sounds like a very difficult situation.” Akaashi mumbled absently. He couldn’t even imagine going through the same thing himself. Being separated from his friends, kept on lockdown, being forced to work behind the scenes to garner change. 

Kenma was incredible. Hinata and Kageyama were incredible. They were the kind of steadfast determined people Akaashi thought only existed as protagonists of storybooks. The kind of people Akaashi couldn’t help but admire, standing from the sidelines and basking in their glow. 

“Tell me about it.” Kenma grumbled. “But it’s been coming along. I think we have just about enough support to make a decent case with the King. And if it doesn't work the first time we’ll just try again and again.”

“Yeah, you go Kenma!” Hinata practically collapsed on Kenma and wrapped him up in another one of those bear hugs of his. “I believe in you!”

“Yeah yeah.” Kenma brushed him off in mock annoyance, but it was easy to see he didn’t mean it. “You should rest. You’ve got to leave before the sunrises, and I don’t want to see you back until your sentence is cleared.”

“How mean.” Kageyama mumbled, but he was already lying back and letting his eyes drift closed. “After we came all this way here.”

Kenma hummed. “Thank you though. For coming.”

“It’s what we do!” Hinata exclaimed, entirely too loudly. Kageyama chucked a pillow at him, hissing something along the lines of _“Quiet down!_ ”

Before Akaashi could wonder if he was supposed to rest too, Kenma looked up from the chessboard to address him. 

“Play with me?” He asked, gesturing to the board.

“I don’t see why not.” Though Akaashi had to admit he found the request odd- why had Kenma decided to single him out? Him who was a stranger, when Hinata and Kageyama, his friends whom he’d been separated from for a year, were right here?

Akaashi lowered himself off the couch to sit in front of the table, right across from Kenma. 

“You can go first.” Kenma said, and Akaashi only picked up his first piece and moved it on the board. 

For a long time they played in silence. Kenma was good at chess, much better than any of his friends were. The only sound in the room was the clinking of pieces on the chessboard and the soft murmurs of whatever conversation Hinata and Kageyama were having.

“I’m surprised you decided to come back.” Kenma’s soft voice cut through the silence. 

“What?” Akaashi asked, hand suspended over the board, pausing where it was going to reach for a piece. 

“Everyone and their mother knows the faces of the criminals who stole the prince’s necklace.” Kenma didn’t bother to meet his eyes, gaze fixed on the board as Akaashi set his pawn down. “The posters are all over. You’ve got quite a bounty over your head.” 

Akaashi only hummed his acknowledgment, and Kenma met his gaze. His golden eyes were as piercing as they had been all night, and Akaashi wondered if there were always like this. Like a cat in the dark, waiting to pounce. 

“I guess what I’m trying to ask, is why you decided to come back with Hinata and Kageyama. It’s too risky for you to do it just because.”

“I’m looking for some people.” Akaashi said. “You might know them, they stole the necklace with me.”

“Your partners in crime?”

Akaashi nodded. “We were split up. I’m trying to find them, and I’m hoping I can find them here.”

“Could have picked a better meeting spot than enemy territory.”

Akaashi only shrugged. “The circumstances were… less than ideal.” 

Kenma said nothing, and the silence rushed back in to cover him. But Akaashi had questions of his own, and Kenma had already opened the questioning gate. Akaashi had every intention to take advantage. 

So while Kenma was pouring over the board, trying to determine his next move, Akaashi spoke up. “So tell me about that guard of yours.”

Kenma paused. “Akiteru?”

“Yes, him.” Akaashi hesitated for a moment, his brain scrambling to figure out just how much he should tell Kenma. But at the end of the day, telling the truth would be the easiest option, and the one with the highest chance of getting him the information he wanted. “Do you happen to know of his family?”

“Oh, you want to know about that.” A small smile graced Kenma’s lips as he moved his bishop over. “I know that he’s your friend Tsukishima’s brother, if that’s what you're getting at. I was wondering if you’d bring it up actually.”

Akiteru must have told him then. Akaashi hadn’t considered that possibility, but it made sense. 

“What did you want to ask?”

That was an invitation if Akaashi had ever heard one. “Did he ever look for Tsukki?” He asked. “He promised him he would, but we never saw him. Not once. Was it all a lie?”

“No. He looked.” Kenma shrugged. “He looked for a long time. I helped him sometimes, before I was put under house arrest. But he was never told where Tsukishima was left. Something about his parents being worried the King might decide further punishment was necessary, so they hid the baby, limiting the knowledge of his location as much as they could. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack with nothing to go on.”

The clunk of the piece hitting the chessboard echoed around the room. 

“And then he saw his brother's name on a wanted poster, saw a drawing of the person he grew up to be.” Kenma smiled slightly, but it seemed bittersweet rather than genuinely happy. “He was devastated. Brought the poster to me and let me listen as he blamed himself for his brother’s fall from grace. It was just a picture of Tsukishima if you were wondering.” Kenma glanced up at Akaashi, who had taken to sitting up ramrod straight, hanging off of Kenma’s every word. “He might not know about your relationship with his brother. I don’t think he’s been out since you stole the necklace.”

Akaashi pursed his lips as he tried to swallow down the guilt rising in his throat. He needed to get a hold of himself. He just saw Akiteru and jumped to conclusions, didn’t he? He didn’t pause to think about what trying to find Tsukki was like for Akiteru before immediately blaming him. 

If he was really trying all this time, doing his best to find Tsukki, then what right did Akaashi have to resent him? He wasn’t even Tsukki for heaven's sake- it didn’t directly affect him at all. 

His hand trembled slightly as he picked up one of his knights. It hadn’t moved from its starting position throughout the game, the last untouched piece now that they were nearing the end of the game. It thunked against the chessboard softly.

Akaashi really was a mess these days, wasn’t he? He’d been acting all out of character. Going on a dangerous break in mission with people he only met a day ago, suddenly getting very invested in the noble marriage clause abolitionists, jumping to conclusions without getting all the facts. 

Kenma made his move quickly. He moved his rook forward, but Akaashi didn’t pay it any mind. 

It felt like he was always making the wrong decision. Doing the opposite of what he should. 

So he picked up the knight and moved it back to its prior spot. At its starting place, unmoved and unbothered. A blank slate for him to work with, to move the pieces as he deemed fit. 

“Why did you do that?” 

Akaashi paused, glancing up at Kenma. “What…?”

“The knight.” Kenma gestured to the piece that he had only just taken his hand off of, finalizing his decision. “You moved it back. Why?”

Why did he do it? It was a simple question but his brain rushed to over-analyze it, to find the best answer, the _right_ answer.

But he already knew the answer. Had always known it, for it was the root of the issue that had begun to plague him since everything went wrong yesterday morning. 

“I doubted myself.”

Kenma’s only response was to pick up his Queen and move it across the board. 

“Checkmate.”

Checkmate? 

Akaashi hadn’t even realized his King was in danger. 

But when his eyes swept across the board, he found Kenma had expertly trapped his King’s every exit point. The Queen was merely the final side of the box. 

However it was when he shifted his attention to his own pieces that Akaashi saw what really caused his demise. 

Had his knight been left in the spot he first moved it to, it would have been in the perfect place to intercept the Queen. In the perfect place to save the King, and give Akaashi a shot at victory. 

“You have to be careful Akaashi.” Kenma was already reaching across the board to reset the pieces, putting them back in their places swiftly. “You're a wanted man. People would kill for the bounty over your head. But you shouldn’t doubt your instincts. You shouldn’t second guess yourself.”

Kenma’s eyes were piercing. They saw through his very soul and Akaashi couldn’t do anything but sit there and stare back, hanging off his every word. 

“The world is dangerous for you. For all of us.” Kenma spoke gravely, his gaze not wavering for a moment. He was the most serious Akaashi had ever seen him, and it sent chills up his spine. “It’s cruel, and we’ll all end up thrown to the dogs someday. The only thing we can do is prolong our demise, for ourselves and those close to us. So Akaashi,”

Kenma picked up the only piece that didn’t need to be moved, the knight that cost Akaashi his victory. 

“Don’t hesitate. Don’t doubt yourself. You need to decide right now who you're willing to sacrifice yourself for.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like that chess scene idk why. Have you ever read The Mysterious Benedict Society (if the answer is no then what are u doing with yer life) cuz I got the inspiration from there. basically the main character is taking a test thing for reasons and one of the questions is a chessboard with a black pawn moved forward and its like is this move possible? and everyone is like no everybody knows the white pieces move first. 
> 
> but main character says it is possible and when he's questioned about it later he says perhaps the white side moved a knight on its first turn and then put it back on its second. then he's asked why the white side player might have done that and he's like 'maybe they doubted themselves'
> 
> I think about that a lot.
> 
> Anyway today's expert from the outline is a series of experts actually because Im really vibing with outline Akaashi:
> 
> And akaashi is like !!!
> 
> And akaashi is like oh NO
> 
> And akaashi is like touche
> 
> and akaashi is like ??
> 
> Up next week: I shove my Kuroshou agenda down your throats, Oikawa is collecting visits from criminals like Pokemon cards, and Daishou NO that is NOT how you talk to people you fuckin snake eye bastard


	9. Interesting and New

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caring was dangerous, and Kuroo tried to avoid it when he could.

Kuroo had never been good at staying still for long periods of time. He just couldn’t do it. Some part of his mind always started urging him to _go go go!_ before too long. It meant he was terrible for spying on people, observing quietly, or anything else that would require him to be still and silent. 

Something exactly like this. 

He couldn’t say how long he and Daishou had been crouched just behind the treeline, staring out into the clearing. Only that it was more than long enough to make him antsy. 

The clearing of The Grand King wasn’t much to look at really. Surrounded by trees and built out of dark wood, it looked right at home in the small clearing. It was well tended to, the teal paint still looking shiny and fresh, and the plants and stone path around it was well maintained. 

It was a quaint and cozy picture, and terribly _boring._

All of the interesting parts of the pub were inside, where there were people and gossip and alcohol. The most interesting things Kuroo had ever seen on the pub’s front bar were a few fist fights, a duel, and a particularly memorable trio of traveling performers who had drunkenly re-enacted an old play. 

And even though what Kuroo was watching go down _should_ have been at least mildly interesting, he had been watching it for so long he was desperate for something, _anything_ else to happen.

“How much longer are we going to spy on the guards?” Kuroo asked, only to be immediately shushed by Daishou. 

“Quiet! You don’t want to be discovered, do you?”

Kuroo only rolled his eyes. “We’re like thirty feet away from them.”

When they stumbled upon the small pub, looking for any leads on Tsukki and Tadashi’s location, the pair was already in there. Kuroo remembered watching from the window as they all shared their dreams like they were in kindergarten or something. 

“Why don’t you just go in there?” Kuroo had asked. “We found your son, so you owe me the necklace.”

Daishou ripped his eyes away from the window for the first time since they’d arrived. “Our deal was that you got the necklace after I got him _back_.”

“So go in there and get him!”

Daishou had shaken his head, like Kuroo was a small child who thought they understood more about the world than they did. “You're not a parent, are you? I shouldn’t be surprised you don't understand.”

Kuroo hadn’t known that he was getting at, but Daishou had been all too happy to explain. “Being a parent is all about teaching your child life lessons. Tadashi needs to learn that the world is dangerous. He needs to learn so he won’t try and run off again. If I bring him back now, then what? He’ll just run off again, and I might not be so fortunate as to find him. Something _terrible_ could happen to him.”

Daishou had pursed his lips and returned his gaze to his son, still visible through the window chatting about dreams or something with the bar goers. “The world is a cruel place. I’m sure you know that. I’m just worried about him, is all.” 

Yeah, the world was cruel. Kuroo didn’t need to be told twice. He was all too familiar with just how cruel it could be. An orphan’s life was far from an easy one, and a thief’s even more so. 

“It’s not my job to tell you how to parent.” Was all Kuroo had said. He was just here for the necklace. He repeated that mantra in his head as he found Tsukki in the pub, staring at the back of his head. Everyone inside was blissfully unaware of the pair staring in at them. Kuroo was nothing more than a detached bystander, but he had so many questions swirling in his head that only the people inside could answer.

Those same questions were still plaguing him now, hours after that particular conversation. When the guards came Daishou pulled them back behind the treeline after seeing Tsukki and Tadashi go down that tunnel. 

The guards had split up, and the group that stayed behind were taking their time wrapping up. They had been there for what felt like hours, waiting for them to leave, all so they could go in and find out where the tunnel let out. Find out where the people they were so close to had escaped.

And in the silence and boredom that waiting brought, Kuroo had nothing better to do then run his questions over and over in his mind. 

It wasn’t kidnapping. Tsukki didn’t kidnap Daishou’s son. Tadashi was having a right and dandy time in that bar, not a care in the world. Kuroo didn’t think Tsukki was the kind of person who would kidnap others, so he wasn’t particularly surprised when Daishou admitted that Tadashi went willingly. A rebellious phase, he had called it, Tadashi trying to prove he understood more than he did. Knew what was best when he didn’t.

But that still didn’t sit right with Kuroo. Why would Tsukki agree to let this random kid tag along with him? Why now, when they were in such a perilous situation? It didn’t make sense, and when he got the chance Kuroo would definitely be chewing him out for this. 

And what's more, Kuroo couldn’t get his necklace back until Daishou taught his son whatever life lesson he was going on about. That the world was dangerous, and he couldn’t go off on his own. How on earth do you even teach a lesson like that?

“I can hear you thinking.” 

Kuroo had gotten so used to the silence he jumped when Daishou spoke up. 

“What?”

Daishou shifted his gaze away from the bar to stare at Kuroo critically. “You look constipated. What are you thinking about?”

Kuroo had half a mind to take offense to that, but ultimately decided against it. Since Daishou had so kindly opened the door to his questions, he may as well take advantage. Plus Daishou still had that knife up his sleeve somewhere. Kuroo didn’t want to chance it. 

“When we catch up to them, what are you going to do?” Kuroo asked. “What are you going to do that will teach a lesson like ‘life is cruel’? It can’t be pretty.”

“I think the best course of action would be to get them to split apart on their own. Talk to them individually and set up the seeds of doubt.” Daishou hummed in thought. “There isn’t a better way to get Tadashi to realize he can’t trust everyone blindly.”

“Harsh.” Kuroo muttered. 

“Well it's true isn't it?” Daishou sighed angrily, glaring out towards the pub like it had personally offended him. “He’s just a child. If he continues to try and be rebellious in the future, continues to blindly trust shady people, who knows what could happen to him. I’m just worried about him.” Daishou’s voice had fallen to scarcely more than a whisper. “I want to protect him. I’m sure you understand. You want to protect people too, right?”

Kuroo said nothing. He only stared out into the clearing as the guards seemed to be wrapping up whatever they were up to in the pub. 

Kuroo had never known what a parent’s love was like. Could only imagine it from stories that made him too jealous to listen to. But maybe this was it. It certainly seemed like it lined up with the idea of what a parent should be he had cobbled together in his head. 

They had gotten off on the wrong foot, but Kuroo couldn’t help but admire how determined he is to do what's best. How he would lurk tirelessly behind the scenes to protect his son. Do anything it took.

And when Kuroo really thought about it, he couldn’t blame him. He would do anything for his friends, his family too. Maybe a parent's love wasn’t so foreign and strange. Maybe it was just the same devotion to another person, the desire to protect them that Kuroo had experienced before. 

Because he did want to protect people. He wanted to find his friends, make sure they all left for a safe place. He wanted to find Tsukki, convince him to leave Tadashi behind and refocus on their goal, the necklace. 

Maybe Daishou had a point. 

Sure Kuroo was still pissed off that he put a knife to his throat and threatened him, but maybe he wasn’t an arrogant bastard.

“Then again Kuroo you're quite a twink, I bet the only thing you could protect is your virginity.”

Nevermind, Daishou was an arrogant bastard.

But if Daishou was going to bite then Kuroo might as well bare his fangs too. He was bored anyway. It wasn’t like the bushes were suddenly interesting to look at, and with night rapidly setting, it was only getting harder to see.

“I’d say take it from me if you dared, but it was lost long ago.” Kuroo shrugged. “Pity.”

“You're just running your mouth.” Daishou scoffed, but it sounded like he was saying it just to have a reply, rather than actually meaning it. 

“You don’t seem very sure about that Squints.”

“Squints?” Daishou stared at Kuroo with wide eyes, like he had seen a ghost. “ _Squints?_ ”

“You've got narrow eyes.” Kuroo scrunched his own eyelids together and squinted at Daishou in what he hoped was an accurate depiction of the other. “Makes you look blind or something.”

“I do not look like that.” Daishou huffed. “Stop being stupid.”

“It suits you! Like a snake. A slimy, disgusting snake-”

Daishou’s arm shot out, smacking Kuroo in the face and effectively cutting off whatever he was about to say. Before Kuroo could manage to protest, Daishou pointed beyond the bushes, his temporary irritation over their bickering seemingly forgotten. 

“Look.” He whispered, and Kuroo tilted his head slightly so he could peek through the foliage that concealed them from sight. 

The guards were finally heading out of The Grand King, assembling into an orderly group as they began to march in the direction of the kingdom. It wouldn’t take them long to get there, only an hour or two if they moved quickly. 

In the doorway of the pub a man with wavy chestnut hair watched them go, contempt unhidden on his face. Kuroo remembered he was the guy Tsukki and Tadashi had gone to talk to, but of what Kuroo didn’t know. The man stood alone in silence for a moment, before sticking his tongue out at the retreating guards back and spinning on his heel to march back into the bar. 

What a weird guy. 

“Now’s our chance.” Daishou stood up abruptly, whipping his head around to make sure the coast was clear before beckoning Kuroo to follow. Kuroo didn’t bother arguing. They hopped over low growing plants and piles of dirt to get into the clearing. 

Kuroo had been sitting on the dirt for far too long. His legs ached being put to use for the first time in what felt like hours. 

Daishou threw open the pub door without any fanfare. It was a lot quieter inside than Kuroo had expected. He had never seen it this empty, but he couldn’t say he was surprised. The Grand King wasn’t known for its stellar characters, so it made sense many of them ran off during the commotion.

Kuroo could hear the floorboards creak slightly as Daishou marched across them, heading for the back. The bar was set up there, a wall with shelves upon shelves of bottles reaching but to the roof. The man from before was pulling the small door that separated the back of the counter from the rest of the bar open, slipping inside after saying something to a man with spiky hair at the bar. 

Kuroo let himself linger behind, watching from a spot near some of the tables in the back as Daishou came to a stop in front of the counter. 

“You're the owner, I assume?” Daishou cut straight to the chase. The man was turned to face the wall, but Kuroo could still tell he stiffened up visibly, before whirling around to reveal a tired smile plastered on his face. 

“Oikawa Tooru.” He spoke through gritted teeth. “Unfortunately, we’re going to be closing in a few minutes so I’m afraid I can’t serve you any-”

“Where does that tunnel let out?” Daishou cut Oikawa off and gestured to the floor behind the counter. Gruff as ever. Perhaps Daishou’s communication skills were limited to threats at knife point and harsh demands. 

“What?” 

“Where you let Tadashi through.” Daishou explained impatiently. “Green hair, freckles, he was just here.”

The spiky-haired man watched them carefully, but didn’t do anything while Oikawa shook his head. “Who are you?” He demanded. 

“We're friends of those two.” Kuroo took that as his cue to intervene, weaving in between the tables to stop next to Daishou in front of the counter. “We’re trying to meet back up with them.”

Oikawa’s eyes widened when he got a good look at Kuroo’s face. “You're one of those bandits on the poster with Tsukki. Got that smirk too.”

“That would be me!” Kuroo raised a hand in greeting. “We’re not just some random strangers or anything.”

“We’ve almost met the whole set.” The spiky-haired man suddenly murmured. He had his face propped up in his hand, and seemed perfectly content to watch them talk. 

“Ah yes!” Oikawa flattened out his hand and used his other to punch it, like he had just had a grand revelation. “We met Bokkun yesterday, Tsukki earlier, and now you. No sign of the fourth though.”

That would be Akaashi then. Kuroo wondered if he was even in this part of the woods anymore. Akaashi would probably try to make his way to a place they all knew about, a place they would eventually return to so they could meet up. Their hideout, perhaps? If so then he was bound for the kingdom, and that was a dangerous place to be. 

“That doesn't matter to me.” Daishou said, pulling Kuroo out of his musing. “Tadashi is my son, I need to find him as soon as possible.”

Oikawa sighed, leaning against the counter and pausing, like he was considering. “Fine.” He finally said. “I’ll tell you where that passage lets out, but only cause you’re with them. Do you know the river that feeds into the lake around the kingdom?”

Kuroo nodded mutely. It was a huge river that flowed in from the mountains, causing the kingdom to be suspended away from the surrounding land. 

“It lets out there, along the old dam, the one that dried up on the one side. It’s still outside of the kingdom, but it's not a far walk to reach the bridges from the exit. Though,” Oikawa grimaced. “Truthfully I don’t even know if they’ll make it out the other side. The guards went after them, and if they got caught they’re likely already in custody in the kingdom by now.”

That… wasn’t good. Kuroo didn’t really care about Tadashi- if anything, he loathed him for causing all this trouble. But he was worried about Tsukki, and this could only spell trouble. If he was caught, then it might already be too late. 

They all knew the gamble they were taking when they set their sights on that necklace. They all knew they were putting their lives on the line for a shot at gold. Kuroo _knew_. He was okay with it. But now that he was faced with the all too harsh reality of Tsukki’s life in danger, it suddenly didn’t seem worth it anymore. The necklace didn’t seem worth their lives now that it was more than just a chance they could be lost. It was reality now, and it was scary. 

But if Tsukki knew Kuroo’s resolve was wavering he’d smack him upside the head. If Tsukki knew Kuroo let the necklace slip through his fingertips, he’d tell him he was an idiot. 

Kuroo made a commitment, and Tsukki did too. And if Kuroo had to remind him of it, then so be it. 

“We can get there without the tunnel.” Daishou was saying when Kuroo forced himself to pay attention to the conversation going on around him once more. “The tunnel isn’t a good idea anyway, the guards must still be down there. If we leave now, we’ll get there by midnight, don’t you think?”

Kuroo only nodded mutely. His mental map of the forest wasn’t the best, but he did have a general idea of where they were. 

His voiceless answer was enough to satisfy Daishou. “Then we’ll leave immediately. Hopefully we can catch them where it lets out.”

“Good luck I guess.” Oikawa muttered. “Try not to die. And if you happen to see that guard captain,” He leaned forward on the counter slightly, his gaze switching between the two of them. “Sock him for me. Hard.”

The man with spiky hair reached out across the counter to smack one of Oikawa’s hands away. Since he was leaning his weight on them, it made him stumble slightly. 

“Don’t make them fight your battles.” He said simply. “You need to stop picking fights.”

“Yeah yeah.” Oikawa rolled his eyes. “Seriously though, punch him for me. The redhead too.”

“Oikawa!” 

“We should head out.” Kuroo grabbed Daishou’s sleeve and went to tug him to the door, but Daishou planted his feet in the ground and turned to speak to Oikawa again. 

“Before we go,” He called, and Oikawa snapped his head up to listen. “Tadashi left home really suddenly. Did he say why he had left?”

Oikawa shrugged, looking unbothered whereas Daishou seemed as if he would hang off any word he spoke. “Not specifically. But he mentioned something about a dream to see that lantern festival thing the kingdom’s doing. Guess Tsukki was taking him to them? I’m not sure.”

For a long moment Daishou didn’t say anything. Kuroo only watched him, his hand still wrapped around his sleeve and Daishou stood in silence. “...Okay. Thank you. We’ll be going then.”

“Good luck!” Oikawa called after them, and Daishou spun on his heel to march out of the bar. Kuroo followed silently behind. Daishou seemed… different somehow. His steps sounded heavier, his head tipped down, and when they emerged into the rapidly setting night he didn’t even glance around, instead heading straight down the path Kuroo knew would eventually lead to the river. 

Kuroo shouldn’t care. He shouldn’t. Daishou was just an unfortunate obstacle, a necessary evil. A faceless entity Kuroo shouldn’t feel anything more about than contempt. 

They hadn’t known each other long. Just a day and a half. But in that time Daishou became a person, and Kuroo was always a sucker for new company. 

Daishou wasn’t just the man who held the necklace hostage, the man with a bargaining chip too powerful for Kuroo to resist. He was a father, and a companion, he was to the point, and confident.

He was the kind of person Kuroo couldn’t hope but root for, and something was weighing him down. 

Kuroo’s traitorous mouth spoke before he could wonder if it was really a good idea to let Daishou any closer than he had already gotten. “What’s up with you?”

“Nothing’s up with me.” Daishou’s answer came fast, way faster than it should have. “I’m fine.”

“You're not acting like it.” Kuroo sped up his pace slightly so that they would be side by side on the path, rather than trailing slightly behind. “You got tense when Oikawa talked about why Tadashi left. What’s up?”

“You won’t let me drop this will you?” Daishou glared up at him, his eyes light with smothered fury. Like he wanted to be mad, but couldn't muster up the energy.

“Nope!”

Daishou said nothing and Kuroo granted him the silence. They had walked for several more minutes with neither of them saying anything, despite Kuroo’s previous declaration. But Kuroo could tell it wasn’t the kind of silence that meant the topic was dropped- it was the kind that meant it was being thought on, debated in someone’s head over just what to say. 

Daishou would speak, and Kuroo would wait as long as he needed. 

In the meantime he wondered himself why he even cared. It wasn’t a question- he wanted to know why his companion was upset, and it was more than just curiosity for curiosity's sake. He cared. For some reason that he couldn’t comprehend. 

Caring was dangerous, and Kuroo tried to avoid it when he could. A thief and criminal couldn’t get _attached_. Especially if it was to someone he really ought to hate. 

A voice in the back of his mind wondered what about Daishou truly deserved hate, but he silenced it immediately. 

“Tadashi told me he wanted to see those lanterns.” Daishou finally said, just when Kuroo was beginning to wonder if he had turned it over in his head and decided not to speak at all. “Told me he could handle himself, that it was safe to go see them. Tadashi’s a very sheltered kid.” Daishou said, glancing at Kuroo out of the corner of his eye but quickly looking away. “It would be easy for someone to take advantage of him, and there are all too many who would. So I told him no.”

Daishou sighed, staring wistfully at the trees as they walked past them. “We got into a bit of a spat I suppose. I left for a while and I came back to see him gone. I can’t help…” Daishou paused, his face turned away as he sucked in a breath. “Can’t help but feel it's my fault. I just wanted to protect him as long as I could, you know? But I’ve put him in danger.”

And maybe Kuroo’s heart cracked, just a bit, when he heard how broken Daishou sounded. Maybe that little voice in the back of his head came back stronger than ever demanding just what there was to hate. 

It was too late for Kuroo to not care for the man who was just trying to protect those he cared about most. 

“Well I’m helping you aren’t I?” Kuroo tilted his head back to watch the sky, the stars peeking out in the shroud of darkness. “We’ll find your son.”

“Thank you.” Daishou said quietly. Kuroo wondered if he was smiling, but he forced himself to keep his eyes on the stars. That sounded like a smile kind of thank you. A soft one, a grateful one. It was probably prettier than the stars. 

What was there to hate?

The question seemed harder to answer than it had a few minutes ago. 

Daishou was interesting and new. He was something Kuroo had never seen before. He was so unlike everyone else, didn’t have that boisterous energy or calculated quiet or the sharp criticalness always lurking just under the surface that Kuroo was so familiar with. He didn’t know what Daishou was, only that it was none of the above, and it wasn’t that bad. 

Kuroo had always liked change. He’d always been a self-declared free spirit, happy to see where the winds took him. 

Maybe Daishou was his next wind. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad one to follow. 

But Daishou was just trying to protect those he cared about the most. He was a wind that wouldn’t blow for long, because Kuroo knew he’d go back to wherever he was before they met in these very same woods. 

What was there to hate?

Kuroo didn’t know anymore. 

But he had made up his mind. He’d follow the wind as long as it blew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: lets make daishou super manipulative but still likeable
> 
> Also me: hOW DO I WRITE COMPLEX CHARACTERS
> 
> The expert from this chapters outline isss (remember anything in bold was written by my beta)
> 
> (hes a slippery bastard he is good at manipulation) **(just. janus from sanders sides)**
> 
> Up next week: PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN GODS HOW COULD I DO THIS TO THEM WHAT HAVE I BECOME, I repeat the same line like twenty times for ✨atmosphere✨, and I'm trying really hard not to accidentally spoil things in the Up next week.

**Author's Note:**

> I hoard comments like a gremlin their treasure. Please talk with me I'm lonely.
> 
> Here's my [Carrd](https://chechecheer.carrd.co)


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